 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Trillion dollar questions
By Niveen Wahish
SPEAKERS at the Cainet 2000 conference last week advocated e-commerce as Egypt's shortcut into the global economy. Within just five years, speakers were keen to stress, e-commerce transactions worldwide will have reached $1 trillion. Egypt hopes to capture at least a portion of the booming trade.
Cainet 2000 is the fifth annual conference to be organised by the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Centre (RITSEC) and the Internet Society of Egypt (ISE). It brought together a large number of professionals from the telecommunications and information technology industry to discuss issues related to use of the Internet and other technological tools. The conference took place parallel to the forum organised by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), convening for the first time in Africa.
In a speech read by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ahmed Nazif, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid told participants that Egypt is supporting the development of a strong local communications and information technology industry, and that the Egyptian government is encouraging alliances between Egyptian and foreign companies.
Cheryl Shavers, US under secretary for commerce for technology, speaking at a press briefing, applauded the Egyptian government's plans to upgrade the communications and IT sectors, describing these plans as "ambitious, but doable." She also called upon officials to avoid "unnecessary restrictions" on e-commerce and urged that legislation recognise the "unique" qualities of the Internet.
