The atmosphere was electric and crowds surrounded a number of exhibitions as the 15th Cairo ICT conference in the Egyptian capitals international conference center opened on Wednesday. There was much fanfare, with one technology guru saying in passing that “this is what Egypt should have been all along.”
He was, of course, referring to the recent protest movement that had ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s regime from power. The country has been reeling economically since then, but this year’s conference hopes to impress international tech and telecom leaders.
This year, organizers added a new hall to give more exhibition space for companies to show off their new products and meet with analysts, experts and other business people in order to promote the ICT sector.
The top pavilion at the exhibition will be French, which despite worries from analysts over alienating other potential investors, will have 10 leading French companies from the banking, insurance and telecom sectors present to “promote their new technologies and services to a broad spectrum of visitors from Egypt, Africa and the Middle East region,” a statement published by AMEinfo.com read.
A ministry of communications official, who was with Minister Maguid Osman said on the sidelines before the opening remarks that this year is the “most important” conference of the 15.
“We are witnessing the development and creation of a new Egypt for all and to have so much interest in the IT and telecom sectors in Egypt is a very good thing for all of us as we move forward,” the official said, not giving his name.
By Desmond Shephard
