The Path to New Arab Revival”

4th Conference on Telecommunication and Information Technology
in the Arab World
5-7 September 2004

   Under the patronage of HE President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Egypt’s International Economic Forum organized the 4th Conference of Telecommunication and Information Technology in the Arab World: The Path to New Arab Revival, which was inaugurated by HE Dr. Ahmed Nazif, Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

  The conference brought together experts, professionals, government officials, leaders of international organizations and private sector and media representatives from 45 countries the Arab region and the outside world.

   The conference came at a time where Arab countries are looking forward to the CIT sector to enhance their competitiveness and revitalize their economies to face the challenge of unemployment. The average rate of unemployment in the Arab World stands now at 15% - and up to 30% amongst the youth. To maintain the current levels the Arab economies need to create 80 million jobs between now and the year 2017.

   In Egypt, a new cabinet presided over by a pioneer in the CIT has been appointed. It includes number of young leaders who value the role of CIT in developing the economy.

   In his inaugural speech Dr. Nazif announced that Egypt will host a conference in April 2005 to co-ordinate an Arab-African stance on the issues to be discussed in Phase II of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Tunisia.

   On the sidelines of the conference, new agreements for co-operation among Arab and international organizations were signed. These include:
 1- Memorandum of Understanding between the Egypt Postal Authority and the
    Greece-based Intralot to establish a new company to provide network added-
     value services.
 2-  Memorandum of Understanding between the Egyptian TEData and the  
    Sudanese Asharaf Telecom to provide broadband services in Sudan.
 3- Agreement between the Egyptian Ministry of Telecommunication and Cisco to establish a center for e-learning at the Smart Village.
 4- Agreement between Telecom Egypt and Cisco to train Telecom Egypt 
    employees in the latest technologies.

   The conference also presented a new initiative to develop Arab language content by supporting the establishment of the Arab Content Center that will receive funding form revenues of international communication services offered by the Arab telecommunication companies.

   Another key initiative presented at the conference is the establishment of an Arab IT Fund to provide 0.25% of Arab governments’ GDP in promissory notes to an Arab financial institution that would extend term loans to CIT start-ups and research and development projects for the development of the CIT sector in the Arab World.

In addition to the above, the conference developed more recommendations that include:
    1-  Achieving inteing the Arab telecommunication infrastructure.
    2-  Developing new policies to encourage local and foreign investment in    the Arab
    CIT sector.
    3-  Training of Arab human resources and providing them with needed skills to
     join  local and international labor markets.
    4-   Enhancing the role of technology in delivering government services.
    5-  Supporting the role of technology in developing other economic sectors through  
     public-private partnerships.

Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel, Cairo- Egypt
  
    Egypt's International Economic Forum has the pleasure to announce its organization of its Fourth conference on IT and Telecommunications in the Arab world “CIT: A Path for Arab Revival  ” The conference, shall be under the Auspices of H.E. Mohamed Hosny Mubarak President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
   The conference that takes place for the fourth consecutive year is the region premier IT & Telecom event that brings together one thousand business leaders from different parts of the world. This year’s conference will focus on a number of topics  including, e -learning, investment in the CIT sectors, Arab knowledge-based revitalization, Pan Arab IT Fund, CIT public-private partnership, security, network development in the Arab World, and IT companies success stories. 
   This year’s conference will highlight the region’s key sector that can contribute to rapid economic growth and become a catalyst for change. As the region liberalizes and works on enhancing its educational, health and infrastructural  services to meet the twenty-first century demands, new avenues for growth in IT & Telecom present themselves.
   The conference structure is designed to facilitate and allow for as much interaction as possible. This special event will be divided into plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshops, country luncheons and receptions and interactive brainstorming sessions.

A partial list of speakers:
H.E. Dr. Atef Ebeid, Prime Minister of Arab Republic of Egypt,  H.E. Amre Moussa, Secretary General, Arab league, H.E. Dr. Ahmed Nazif, Minister of CIT, Arab Republic of Egypt, H.E. Dr. Mohamed Beshir El Menaged Minister of Communications, Arab Republic of Syria, H.E. Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa Al Khalifa, Undersecretary of Transportation, Kingdom of Bahrain, Baroness Susan Greenfield,  H.E. Dr. Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Co-Chairman, UN ICT Task Force, Conny Kulmann, CEO, Intelsat, United States of America, Hon. Darell Issa, US Congress, United States of America, Hon. Donald Upson, Former Secretary of Technology, Virginia, United States of America, Henry Azzam, CEO, Jordinvest, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Flavien Bachabi, Regional Vice President Africa & ME, Intelsat, United States of America, -, Hilary Bowker, President, Bowker Communications, United kingdom, Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary General, International Chamber of Commerce, France, Sean Cleary, Managing Director, Strategic Concepts, South Africa, Patrick de Smedt, Chairman, Microsoft Europe, ME & Africa,  John Defterious, Anchor, Int’l Herald Tribune TV, Italy, Dr. Klaus Hofmann, CEO, Detecon, Germany, Nik Gowing, main presenter, BBC World TV, United Kingdom, Maggie Mitchell,  Juan Rada, Senior Vice President, Oracle Europe, ME & Africa, Dr. Mark Rosekind, President & Chief Scientist, Alertness  Solutions, United States of America, Ikram Majeed Sehgal , Managing Director, Pathinfinder Group, Pakistan, Todd Siler, Founder & Director, Psi-Phi Communications, LLC, United States of America.
* To be Confirmed

In this context the conference served to meet the following objectives:
•         Discuss the Arab Governments initiatives for IT projects and highlight potential investment opportunities in the region.
•         Emphasize the training programs required for building capabilities and developing human resources to allow for CIT growth in the region.
•         Highlight the need for developing an Arab content and application industry in the region to serve sectors of health, education, culture, mass media and electronic trade and others.
•         Provide the private sector perspective in developing the required legal framework for allowing growth in the CIT sector in the region.
•         Provide an environment for research and development in collaboration with private initiatives.
•         Create a common Arab ICT strategy in collaboration with Arab Governments, private sector and civil society in order to further integrate the region with the global community.
•         Develop the key drivers required for creating a competitive environment with the CIT sector in the Arab region.
•         Emphasize the competitive edge in the region that would attract outsourcing by international companies.
•         Create higher institute of learning and research and development at the Pan-Arab level.
•         Encourage the establishment of inter-Arab connectivity plan that is officially accepted and funded.

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