Statement by H.E. Dr. Ahmed Nazif
Minister of Communications & Information Technology of Egypt
delivered by 
Her Excellency Mrs Fekria Abdel A. Allam,
Executive Director, Egypt's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority 
 

First, I would like to thank the Moroccan Government for hosting the First Plenipotentiary of the ITU in the 21^st Century and for their warm hospitality and fine organization of the event.

I am delighted to share with you Egypt's policy statement to this select gathering of policy makers in the field of communications and information technology. This meeting assumes particular importance for many reasons.

First is the timing of the meeting that comes at a juncture whereby the ever changing telecommunications environment is facing significant challenges to meet the growing demand for our services while overcoming the shortages in infrastructure. Second, our meeting is of significant importance as it tackles the salient issues put on its agenda. I would like to highlight just a few of these, primarily the function and structure of the ITU, the rights and obligations of sector members and the revision of the International Telecommunications Regulations. We have articulated our position on each of these issues as we presented our Common Proposals for the Work of the Conference with Arab and African states. We look forward to sharing our views with the rest of the membership, and achieving a consensus on how we can improve our organization so it can cope with the accelerating pace of change.

In today's telecommunications environment, and more than ever, international cooperation becomes essential to spread the benefits of the Communications and Information Technology Revolution to the whole world. We have realized this in Egypt and are hence pursuing an increasingly active international agenda. We hosted in May 2002 the Fifth Meeting of the Ministerial Oversight Committee of the African Telecommunications Union, and this month the Third Meeting of the Arab Preparatory Task Force for the World Summit for the Information Society. On the Mediterranean front, Egypt participates in the Euro-Mediterranean Information Society. We took the initiative to establish the Arab Business Forum for Information and Communications Technology and proposed the creation of a similar African entity. In addition, Cairo is the seat of the ITU Arab Regional Office. This reflects our belief not only of the importance of international cooperation in this sector but also of the shared responsibility between the private and public agents.

I am also happy to report to you that many of the strategic orientations and broad goals of the ITU were reflected in our own Communications and Information Technology Plan and in its execution. In Egypt, we perceive the danger of the digital divide not only in widening the development gap between us and the developed world, its real danger is in expanding the gap between the have and the have-nots sharing the same country. Thus, our primary mission was working on bridging the gap between rural and urban areas, assuring affordable access to adequate telecommunication services, and using telecommunications as a means for job and wealth creation.

Our experience in the liberalization of the Internet, mobile and payphone markets has proven how effective Public-Private Partnerships can result in high penetration rates, more customer-oriented services, and lower tariffs. The introduction of the Revenue Sharing partnerships between private companies and the incumbent network operator, Telecom Egypt (TE) provided special impetus to enhancing connectivity in Egypt. Examples are the partnerships with two private mobile networks, three payphone operators, and 64 Internet Service Providers. One major and new partnership is Egypt’s Subscription Free Internet Service. In cooperation with the majority of Egypt’s Internet Service Providers, Telecom Egypt was able to eliminate monthly subscription fees for internet users through a revenue sharing agreement. Both partners should gain the benefits, Telecom Egypt by having the traffic increase, and the ISPs by having even more subscribers since the cost of connection for the user will be equal to a local telephone call.

We also believed that the establishment of an efficient market cannot be the job for a single entity, we elected the establishment of a liberalized telecommunications sector as our approach towards development of communication services. We started our efforts by building a favorable investment climate and giving more incentives for investments in the telecommunication market in Egypt by granting telecommunications related projects tax exemptions up to 10 years.

We believe that human resources are the most valuable assets in the development equation. We cooperated with universities, schools, public libraries and NGOs in established 400 technology clubs all over Egypt as centers for public access to Internet and training on IT for the citizens in Egypt. For professional training, our plan is to co-operate with suppliers and licensed operators as training-partners to provide training for a number of Egyptian graduates that is agreed upon and selected according to a criteria set by the MCIT and the training-partner. This has resulted in building a wealth of young graduates, well trained on the design, maintenance and operation of telecommunication networks and provision of state-of-the-art services, which lead to the establishment of a number of service centers for transnational companies to service the Europe, Middle East and African regions with their basis located in Egypt.

In order to provide the legal framework for the new environment, MCIT drafted a Telecommunications Act to materialize its vision of a liberalized telecommunications market. The Act lays down foundations for services provision, competition between operators, management of the frequency spectrum, as well as share of bottleneck resources. The Act is addressing the provision of telecommunication services throughout Egypt at affordable rates, and establishing a universal fund to finance this objective. The Act also empowers the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) by granting it full autonomy from other governmental organizations to assure its full independence and build complete transparency in the sector according to the world’s best practices.

These activities have encouraged major foreign and national companies to invest in the telecommunications sector in Egypt. The new investments have resulted in a massive increase in accessibility in Egypt over the last 2 years, reduction of access tariffs, and more customer-focused services. Internet users reached 1,000,000 users by the middle of 2002, and will be reaching two million users by the middle of 2003. Mobile subscribers have reached 3.7 Million by the middle of the 2002, a penetration rate of 6%, and are expected to reach approximately 4.5 million by its end. Fixed-line subscribers reached almost 7 Million and are expected to reach 7.5 Million by the end of 2002, with a penetration rate of 11%.

We are now confident about the positive results of the National CIT Plan, and the performance of the telecommunication operators in Egypt, and we believe that we are in a position to liberalize our telecommunications market for international competition. Egypt has joined the BTA and is proposing further deregulation of mobile services by December 2002 and deregulation of the basic services by December 2005 with no restrictions on foreign participation in this critical sector.

I hope I was able to convey to you the enthusiasm with which we are committed to bring Egypt into the information age while seizing the digital opportunity through ensuring awareness, access and affordability of CIT to all citizens. Governed with a philosophy of deregulation, privatization and public private partnerships, the government acted as a catalyst for a market that became one of the fastest growing in the world (17% growth in 2001), and a true regional CIT hub. We commit to you in this most important gathering to put our expertise in service of all others eager to learn from them as well the best practices of their success stories. We view the International Telecommunications Union as the main vehicle carrying us in this direction. We view its council as mandated to implement its ambitious plans. And we view this select conference as our guide in this direction.