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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Future ventures
By Niveen Wahish
Attracting investment in the local IT sector is high on President Mubarak's list of priorities during his visit to the US. Thankfully, US companies are taking a growing interest in the Egyptian market.
Mustafa Sarhank, CEO of Internet Security Systems (ISS), identifies intense interest on the part of foreign companies with many keen to capitalise on the growing use of the Internet in Egypt.
ISS, which only recently decided to set up shop in Egypt, quickly decided that Cairo was ideally positioned to access the Middle East market. The secret of success, Sarhank tells potential foreign investors, is to take up a local partner who knows how to deal with the market. (ISS Middle East is itself a joint venture between ISS, which holds 60 per cent, and Sarhank Investment Group which holds the remaining 40 per cent share.)
Egyptian and US government officials are already promoting the same formula. In May, a delegation of US IT companies is scheduled to visit Egypt to probe possible cooperation with Egyptian companies while last week Suzette Singer, vice president of worldwide marketing for the Oracle Corporation, was in Egypt to assist Egyptian companies to present themselves "in the best light to US companies."
The ensuing contact between local companies and their US counterparts will, it is hoped, attract greater quantities of venture capital to the local market as potential US partners become increasingly aware of the capabilities and potential of Egypt's IT sector.
Singer stressed that while Egypt has many experienced high-tech companies, some have so far found it difficult to effectively market themselves in the US. Meanwhile, she said, US companies are interested in looking "to Egypt as a source for software development as well as other technical capabilities."
Meetings with several Egyptian companies revealed, she said, that the companies were well aware of the markets they wanted to target, ranging from the provision of offshore software development services and acting as representatives for US products in the Middle East and Africa to directly marketing Egyptian products in the US.
"Everyone worldwide is looking for people who have skills related to software development, e-commerce, and web development," she said, and Egyptian businesses should take advantage of this.
She believes that e-commerce offers the greatest opportunities for local companies. "It is a new area where there is great demand for people who can bring solutions to the rest of the world."
Indeed, anything relating to the Internet is a potentially lucrative area on which to work, she pointed out. And while business-to-consumer e-commerce is attracting a lot of attention it is, she believes, business-to-business e-commerce solutions that will be in greatest demand. Egyptian companies should, then, she argues, focus on technology appropriate for business to business e-commerce solutions.
The trade mission is sponsored by USAID. Logisitical support is provided by the International Executive Corps (IESC), a non-profit organisation funded by USAID.
