Mahfouz made his comments during his participation in the seventh edition of Techne Summit 2021, a platform for a group of initiatives that support tech and tech-enabled startups around the Mediterranean region, held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
ITIDA and the its affiliate the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC) are participating in the event.
Mahfouz stated that the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and its affiliates will continue to support and foster innovation-based entrepreneurship and strongly support startup companies for the sake of establishing a digital innovation hub in each governorate where all forms of support and specialized training are available in addition to emerging technologies labs, embedded systems, electronics design, and business incubators. and co-working spaces for startups.
Mahfouz also indicated that the number of trainees in technological fields has doubled in 2021, as the ITIDA has trained and graduated more than 65,000 through the Egypt Future Work is Digital (EgyFWD) initiative, in labour market's most in-demand technology tracks, including data analysis, website development, and digital marketing.
To boost the startup ecosystem and attract more global venture capital (VC) to Egypt, Mahfouz noted that ITIDA brings startup founders together with global matchmaking events between investors, as well as supporting them in international exhibitions such as WebSummit in Portugal and CES in Las Vegas to help them promote their innovations and tech solutions and enhance their capability to create partnerships and penetrate foreign markets.
Mahfouz affirmed that ITIDA seeks to define and develop solutions to the challenges and obstacles facing startup companies, whether in the establishment phase or those that impede the injection of investments into these companies. These solutions, he said, do not need legislative amendments and can be developed in cooperation with a working group that includes representatives from several governmental and private agencies. Mahfouz added that entrepreneurs should establish their companies as joint-stock company which is better than the limited liability company option.
He added that ITIDA has formulated a five-year strategy in cooperation with a global consulting firm that aims to enhance Egypt’s regional and international position by encouraging and attracting more investment and VC to the Egyptian market, and help local startups to scale both locally and globally.
Several governmental and private agencies participate in the summit, including the ITIDA, Egypt Post, the Chamber of Information Technology, the Digital Economy and Technology General Division (DETGD), the German Cooperation for International Development (GIZ), Fawry, and Roche Healthcare, Hivos, Adventures, Sanad Investment Fund, Egypt Ventures, Zoho, Inertia, Novartis, and JTC.
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