Chairwoman of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Hala El-Gohary said that Egypt is the country with the most internet users in the Arab region, with 50 million users under the age of 30, which makes the country a great destination for e-commerce.

During her participation in the second edition of the E-Commerce Summit, which kicked off on Thursday, El-Gohary said that 1.8 billion persons worldwide used the internet in 2018, and that this figure is expected to rise to 1.9 billion by the end of 2019, which is 25 percent of the world population.

“The Egyptian market is qualified to push the growth of e-commerce not only in Egypt, but the whole world, as it is ready to become a regional hub for this activity,” El-Gohary added.

She also said that Egypt provides incentives to information and digital technology companies through an export subsidy programme that has been raised to 5 percent.

El-Gohary added that ITIDA is supporting the sector indirectly by offering training to build capabilities in the field.

Director-general of Shell Lubricants Egypt Amal El-Sheikh said that digital transformation has become important for all countries around the world and must be widely adopted in Egypt.

“Digital transformation has become an essential policy agenda for companies, similar to the transformation that came with the development of electricity over 100 years ago,” Al-Sheikh said.

She added that Shell Egypt has put in place a 10-year plan to implement digital transformation in all the company's sectors to be in line with the global trend.

Al-Sheikh asserted that digital transformation will affect the consumer experience positively and that companies should focus on improving the consumer experience.