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Internet in Egypt: "A Tool for Development"

Conference Paper · June 1999

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 Internet in Egypt: “A Tool for Development”
Sherif Kamel Maha Hussein
American University Regional Information
In Cairo Technology Institute
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract

The information and communication technology evolution is aggressively

affecting the world as it approaches the 21st century. The waves of change have had

implications on academia, the industry and the business community. The magnitude

of socioeconomic and business development change has had a global perspective

unconstrained with time or distance barriers reaching both developed and developing

nations. Egypt, as a developing country with an economy in transition, has been

massively investing in building its information technology infrastructure. Therefore,

in 1994, the Internet became a priority issue for both the government and the public

sector as a tool for socioeconomic and business development. This paper

demonstrates the experience of Egypt in introducing the Internet and its evolution

from its birth in the academic sector up to its commercial takeoff. The paper addresses

the lessons learned in facing infrastructure limitations and the new role of the

government, in partnership with the private sector, to promote value-added

information and business services such as electronic commerce. Finally, the paper

concludes with a description of the opportunities and the challenges to establish a

strong Internet society in Egypt.

Introduction

Periodically, the new technologies cause major shifts in the way business is

done, setting the pace and influencing business and socioeconomic growth. In the 19th
century the railroads industry was the main growth engine, during the 1960s and 1970s

the key for prosperity was the manufacturing industry. During the 1980s, the boom

concentrated on the shift from the manufacturing to the service economies, such as

health care and retailing.

During the 1990s, information and communication technologies became an

important platform in planning for socioeconomic development. This has led, with the

development of the Internet to the formulation of the concept of the “Information

Highway” (Kamel, 1995). With the information highway in place, the world is on the

verge of a new digital age integrating information and communication technologies,

leading to the development of the global information society that is affecting global

business and socioeconomic development. Additionally, the information-based society

has been promoting a number of new global trends including competing in time, time to

market, customer-oriented services, on-line society, smart communities, market

economy, and intellectual capital such as information and knowledge.

Today, the Internet is a major driving force of change in the global market

place (Kamel, 1995). The Internet promises to improve people’s lives in the way they

work, study, and get entertained among other diverse implications. The beneficiary is

the global society. The growth of the Internet in terms of numbers of users and

applications introduced has been remarkable over the last decade where the number of

users have been doubling for the 11th year since 1988 (Cerf, 1999). Projections show

such growth rate will continue to rise in the years to come, as the world becomes more

aware of the opportunities enabled by the Internet as a vital source of information and

knowledge at the individual and organizational levels.

Egypt, as a developing country, has chosen since 1985 to invest in its

information infrastructure targeting the build-up of the country’s national information

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infrastructure to become the platform for the development of all sectors based on

timely, relevant and accurate information. During the period 1985-1995, a public-

private sector partnership for growth and development had a remarkable impact on the

build-up of Egypt’s information infrastructure (Kamel, 1995), with hundreds of

informatics projects and centers established in various government, public and private

sector organizations targeting Egypt’s socioeconomic and development planning.

Such an effort was coupled with a comprehensive plan for training and human

resource development in information technology and its implications on different

sectors and industries that had an invaluable input in building an information

technology literate society capable of leading Egypt into the 21st century from an

information perspective.

Internet and the Society

The next millennium promises to bring to the world more innovations, more

opportunities, but also more challenges. Therefore, countries around the world,

including Egypt, should be prepared for a more competitive global market place that

is timely, accurate and information driven. In that respect, the Internet is currently

playing that vital platform role in the global business environment. The global Internet

market today is estimated to have between 130 and 150 million users coupled with 44

million hosts in more than 130 countries. In the coming 10 years, this figure is

estimated to reach over 500 million active users. Although the exponential growth of

the Internet may sound impressive, but the figures are less dazzling with a world

population of over 5 billion. Moreover, by 2047 the world’s population will reach

about 11 billion with only 25% estimated to be on the Internet, nearly 3 billion users

(Cerf 1999). By 2006, the Internet is likely to exceed the size of the global telephone

network but even at that scale, it is important to note that only half the population of

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the earth have ever made a telephone call (Cerf, 1999). Furthermore, over three-

quarters of the computers linked to the Internet are found in the United States, Europe

has a smaller fraction and then the emerging economies. Internet users in developing

countries only constitute a small percentage of total global users. Thus, while an

estimated 3.1 percent of the population in high-income countries use the Internet, a

small fraction of the population in low-income countries does so.

It is clear that the current distribution of access to the Internet needs to be

redressed, especially with regard to the developing world. Furthermore, appropriate

tools and applications need to be developed so that all members of the different

societies can benefit from the digital revolution. The Internet is revolutionizing

information and communication technology with direct impacts on the emergence of a

global information-based networked society establishing new concepts for human

communication and affecting economies and societies worldwide. Therefore, the new

information-based society represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the

developing world.

The Internet has the potential to be socially beneficial to the global society in

issues such as economic growth, education, and business development among other

sectors and key issues in the economy. It can help in alleviating poverty, improving

access to health care and education, conserving and fairly distributing resources, and

strengthening participation in decision-making processes. In that respect, the success

of the Internet should be measured less in terms of sheer numbers of connected

individuals and more in terms of accessibility and contribution to social progress. The

Internet represents a dynamic model for the Information Society. However, people

especially in many developing countries, are not prepared for the new technologies.

There is a need for more and better training and education as well as other issues such

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as awareness creation and readiness by governments and public authorities to assume

their responsibilities. Moreover, from a socioeconomic perspective there is a need for

public and widespread participation in the evolving information society, to avoid the

risk of creating classes of information ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Therefore, a broad and

continued societal effort about the Internet is essential to overcome its hurdles and

reap its benefits.

As we approach the 21st century, globalization of markets and strategies, and

the increasing mobility of capital and know-how characterize the business and

economic process worldwide. The movers and shakers behind this change are the

innovative global information and communication technologies with many

implications on trade and business. Therefore, one needs to address the opportunities

that the Internet with its various engines holds for Egypt. Such an issue compares with

what occurred more than a hundred years ago, when the world’s economy evolved

from an agricultural society to an industrial society. Had it not made that shift, Egypt

would have been left behind, unable to survive in the New World order. Similarly,

Internet through “electronic commerce” brings about the same type of decision, where

it provides unprecedented opportunities for increasing trade, promoting investment,

facilitating business transactions, providing a larger and more varied market and

supplying an unparalleled marketing tool. Electronic commerce carries strong

business and socioeconomic implications for the Egyptian citizens and firms and

provides many opportunities to access global markets.

Evolution of the Internet in Egypt

Egypt Telecom is the predominant provider of telecommunication services in

Egypt (Kamel, 1998). In 1998, it was transformed into a joint stock company to

establish and operate local telecommunication networks, including international links

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(Mintz, 1998). In general, Egypt’s telecommunications sector has improved

significantly during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1997, it reached more than 4.5 million

wire lines with a teledensity rate of more than 7.4. Internationally, the number of

channels expanded substantially to 8,066 in 1997, compared to 820 in 1977.

Microwave links, along with satellite earth stations and submarine cable systems

helped connect Egypt to the world, coupled with an improvement in the quality of

services with fiber optic technology with automatic and digital exchanges (Mintz,

1998). In 1996, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Very

Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) networks were introduced to complement the

terrestrial solutions to help reduce the gap in services between relatively well

connected regions, such as greater Cairo, and remote and rural locations, such as in

Upper Egypt. In 1997, asymmetric communication was introduced to speed up

Internet data downloading by relying on a hybrid connectivity solution involving

satellites and terrestrial links (Kamel, 1998).

Internet services in Egypt started in October 1993 through a 9.6K link between

the Egyptian Universities Network (EUN) and France, which carried both the Bitnet

and Internet traffic. In 1993, 2,000 people used the Internet. In 1994, the Egyptian

domain was divided into four major sub-domains (http://www.ise.org.eg). The

academic sub-domain via a gateway at the Supreme Council of Universities, which

provides services for universities and schools; the scientific sub-domain located at the

Academy of Scientific Research and serves research institutes and centers. As for the

commercial and government sub-domains, they were established through a

partnership between the Egyptian Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center

(IDSC) http://www.idsc.gov.eg and the Regional Information Technology and

Software Engineering Center (RITSEC) http://www.ritsec.com.eg.

6
 Interconnectivity was improved in 1994 by establishing 64K digital access to

France through cooperation between IDSC, EUN and Egypt Telecom (Kamel, 1998).

During the initial phases, a mandate for the diffusion of the Internet in Egypt was

disseminated. Accordingly, IDSC and RITSEC, in charge of the commercial domain,

provided Internet access to the public, private, government and non-government

organizations on a trail basis, free of charge to entice the users to venture into the new

technology. This was done with the financial support of the Egyptian government, in

an attempt to aid in the global exposure of the Egyptian market and to pave the way

for the commercialization of the Internet services in Egypt. The free access formula

was accredited for contributing to the boost in the rate of growth of Internet users,

especially within small and medium sized enterprises, professionals from a wide

range of sectors such as trade, manufacturing, tourism, health care, and social

services.

However, in 1996, the government decided to replace its free Internet access

policy with an open access policy, where Internet services for the commercial domain

were privatized, and then 12 Internet service providers started their operation. By

January 1997, more than 50,000 Egyptians were using the Internet, representing a

much broader spectrum of society than the academic and scientific community served

by 20 ISPs. In April 1999, there are more than 250,000 Egyptians using the Internet

served by 50 Internet service providers all across the country (Kamel, 1998).

In order to develop Egyptian content on the Internet, IDSC and RITSEC began

implementing the Egyptian Information Highway Project in 1995. This is being

formulated with an objective to make the Internet more relevant and appealing to

Egyptians (http://www.idsc.gov.eg). The project seeks to accelerate growth by

promoting electronic dissemination of information, establishing information highways

7
in key sectors of the economy, contributing towards a wide access to information,

supporting the development of secure on-line databases, and training people to

establish the national information highway (Hashem and Ismail, 1998). Pilot

information networks have been launched covering issues such as trade “TradeNet”,

culture “CultureNet”, tourism “TourismNet”, health care “HealthNet”, education

“EduNet”, and local administration “GovernoratesNet” (Kamel, 1995). For example,

TradeNet aims at linking buyers and sellers from Egypt and the world. EduNet targets

inter-networking 200 public schools in Egypt to develop a new intellectual generation of

tutors, scholars and teachers enlightened with different cutting-edge information

technology methodologies. GovernorateNet (http://www.idsc.gov.eg/govern) aims at

accelerating socioeconomic development through inter-networking Egypt's 26 provinces

offering an information architecture that supports the decision making process.

CultureNet (http://www.idsc.gov.eg/culture) seeks to promote awareness of Egypt’s

culture and heritage, and act as a central resource for Egypt’s cultural community;

connecting to major Egyptian museums, libraries, and cultural institutions.

Beneficiaries of the networks are investors, professionals, environmentalists,

businessmen, government officials, the industry, and the society at large. This also

include non-profit organizations, research centers, business associations, and

educational institutions.

Since the launch of the private Internet services, the ISPs are differentiating

themselves online, based on their target clients and subsequently are focusing their

developed information materials accordingly to these market segments. This medium

has led to the emergence of a number of online magazines, newsletters, newspapers

and information bulletins ranging in their content and subject matter. Moreover, non-

profit organizations, business and professional associations to economic research

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institutions, have also developed and posted content for Egypt. Possible examples

would be the 1996 launched Internet Society of Egypt. The ISE’s online site is rich

with information regarding Egypt, Internet in Egypt and possible links to similar

pages. The government of Egypt has also begun to provide information over the

Internet (Kamel 1996).

Since 1994, the Internet has grown in Egypt reaching approximately 17,000

host computers by far more than the rest of the Arab nations combined. However, on a

host computers/capita basis, Egypt is in the bottom 12.5-50% segment of the world in

terms of computer host density when compared with the population. Moreover,

although Internet users in Egypt double once every 10-12 months, which is somewhat

above the region’s average, this is only 50-60% of the global rate, estimated at

doubling every six months. The ratio of Internet subscribers to population is 1:1,500

in Egypt, in contrast to 1:5 in the United States (Mintz, 1998).

The growth in the number of Internet services providers is a reflection of the

increasing demand for Internet services in Egypt that led to a downward trend in

prices for Internet users though still paying much more than their international

counterparts (Mintz, 1998). There are currently 50 Internet service providers in Egypt,

where service is concentrated in Cairo with 7 Internet service providers in Alexandria,

and more limited service offered in Upper Egypt, Red Sea and Sinai. Egyptian ISPs

have been competing primarily on the basis of price, with end-user costs diminishing

as competition heats up. Some ISPs have targeted specific markets, such as financial

markets, offering corporate-based solutions, while others have invested in Internet

cafes, in conjunction with their Internet services. Statistics show that 90% of the

Internet service providers obtain bandwidth through RITSEC, which itself handles

approximately 70% of the Internet traffic in Egypt. The Egyptian University Network

9
and two private ISPs (GegaNet and Internet Egypt) have their own private gateways

outside of Egypt.

Internet Users can be divided into three categories: 30% in the academic

community, 20% in the government and the public sector and 50% in the business

community spread across 16 of Egypt’s 26 governorates. ISP services in Egypt can be

categorized as mainly electronic mail, 95% offer Telnet and FTP, 98% offer WWW

access, 85% offer hosting of home pages, 25% offer training and 50% offer services

such as web design and development, and hosting news groups (Mintz, 1998).

Internet Commerce: “A Tool for Development”

The role of information and communication technology is increasingly

affecting socioeconomic and business development plans in Egypt (Kamel, 1995).

Therefore, in its strive to lift-up its developmental process, Egypt has formulated a

national plan demonstrating its vision to prepare itself for a more competitive and

global market environment that is enabled by the information age through investing in

the build-up of a comprehensive Internet commerce infrastructure.

The long-term objectives of the plan aim at formulating a framework for

electronic commerce coherent with national policies and compatible with the global

market, developing the national information infrastructure required, improving

awareness and stimulating cooperation between the government, the industry and the

private sector and promoting online business development platforms. Electronic

commerce promises to offer enormous opportunities for the Egyptian market with

implications on the labor market where new employment potential will focus on

information-based and value-added services that can have a vital impact on business

and industry growth in Egypt. It is estimated that electronic commerce will generate

between 1.8 and 3.2 trillion US dollars of revenues by 2003 (Cerf, 1999) presenting a

10
window of opportunity for developing countries. Egypt has been undergoing

invaluable effort in that direction to capitalize on the possible opportunities presented

by electronic commerce.

During the last couple of years, there has been a clear interest in Egypt to

diffuse electronic commerce among the business community shown by moving to the

Internet to market and promote their ideas, products and services. For example, the

ABC supermarket chain (http://abcsupermarkets.com) started its web-based electronic

commerce since 1998, allowing customers to order groceries over the Internet. ABC

Supermarkets had the first electronic web site in Egypt and the region, with its entire

focus being local grocery shopping. However, there are greater opportunities for

electronic commerce dissemination in Egypt with a focus on business-to-business as

opposed to business-to-customer opportunities such as in the banking and financial

market sector.

Moreover, the government of Egypt has invested time and effort in posting

national economic information on the Internet. For example, Egypt’s State

Information Service (SIS) (http://www.sis.gov.eg) includes information on

investment, economic growth, foreign trade, agriculture and irrigation, industry,

energy, transportation and tourism among others. Additionally, IDSC publishes its

monthly economic bulletin online (http://www.economic.idsc.gov.eg). The bulletin

includes key economic indicators reflecting the performance of the Egyptian

economy. The Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, an independent organization,

(http://www.eces.org.eg) web site describes its activities, its research reports and

findings, and publishes an on-line series of articles to contribute to the discussion of

ideas and policy options for enhancing economic development in Egypt.

11
 On the business side, Kompass, a private firm, provides a wealthy database on

the Internet with information on 22,000 Egyptian firms. Egyptian International Trade

Point (http://www.tradepoint.cs.tut.fi) is Egypt’s electronic linkage with UNCTAD’s

Global Trade Points Network, composed of more than 116 trade points located in 80

countries. The web site, managed by the Ministry of Trade and Supply targets listing

of trade opportunities for Egyptian businesses, providing information on international

customs, banks and packaging requirements, and establishing a database for Egyptian

exporters and importers.

Electronic commerce represents a dynamic model for the information society.

However, consumers will need to become familiar with information technology for

communicating and ordering goods and services electronically. This needs to be done

through training, education and awareness creation and readiness by governments and

private firms to avoid the risk of creating classes of information haves and have-nots.

Electronic commerce will have a profound impact on the society at large. Therefore,

with the dawn of the 21st century, a need arises to address the scope that electronic

commerce holds for Egypt providing unprecedented opportunities for increasing

trade, promoting investment, facilitating business transactions, and accessing a global

market place.

Electronic commerce could enable Egypt to experience a more open economy

and increase its comparative advantage worldwide. Such an opportunity holds a lot of

promise for the economic development of Egypt, providing it with new opportunities

for penetrating international trading markets especially for small and medium size

enterprises, which lack the resources enabling them to promote themselves globally.

Egypt can also benefit, through electronic commerce, in sectors such as tourism,

12
entertainment, education and health implying many business and socioeconomic

results at both the individual and organizational levels.

Internet Challenges & Opportunities

There are a number of challenges and opportunities that face the Internet in

Egypt with many issues to be resolved and questions to be answered. If the desired

objectives from the Internet as a tool for business and socioeconomic development

and the transformation of these challenges into opportunities are to be realized, then

these issues have to be addressed.

Opportunities

Online business represents a vehicle for global competition for Egyptian

firms. It could help in sustaining and leveraging its position in the global market by

providing a dynamic approach to business development through the multilateral

trading system which can help enhance trade and investment opportunities in Egypt. It

also facilitates international trade and investment opportunities. The Internet-based

business services will help users to research and identify business opportunities and

conduct transactions and trading opportunities across borders irrespective of time and

distance. In 1998, business-to-business electronic commerce amounted to 17 billion

US dollars. The opportunities for Egypt to benefit from this new digital age of

commerce are substantial, particularly as Egypt seeks to promote exports of its

agricultural and industrial production.

Networking between economists, businessmen and policy analysts is needed

to continuously exchange information and collaborate in joint projects within a

dynamic global economy. Virtual conferences and Internet newsgroups offer

opportunities for networking that can perfectly work in Egypt in aiding policy

analysts to work more collaboratively with colleagues in the region and worldwide

13
and in opening channels for discussions to get wider perspectives on key policy

matters.

Research and development is a must for individuals, organizations and

nations to remain current on global economic and market conditions. Business

associations, universities and research centers will only grow and expand through

regional and international partnerships. Respectively, the Internet is a great tool where

Egyptian research institutions can benefit by having access to research findings,

international experience, and viewpoints from around the world.

Transparency and making information publicly available is another

opportunity enabled by the Internet. Transparency is vital for an informed public and

advocacy is important to lobby for change. Respectively, the governments worldwide

use the Internet to publish policies, laws and regulations so that they are clear for both

citizens and concerned international partners. Non-governmental organizations use the

Internet to push for policy reforms and change. These applications of the Internet are

relevant to Egypt permitting the government to clarify policies, and permitting non-

government organizations to work together towards change.

Deregulation of value-added services could be another opportunity post to the

success of the government/private sector partnership in the commercialization of

Internet services where the communication infrastructure deployment is a promising

area for private-sector participation.

Challenges

Costing of the telecommunications infrastructure with respect to Internet

services is beyond the capacity of the majority of users with a country at a per capita

margin of 1,460 US dollars and according to the majority of Internet service providers

Internet users in Egypt are very price sensitive. Therefore unless costs can be

14
substantially reduced, the potential market and application of the Internet in Egypt

will remain constrained. Thus, the role of the government is vital in setting policies

and encouraging the privatization of government controlled telecommunications to

promote and preserve competition within the industry. This will help avoid the

inflation of prices, provide a better service, eliminate the monopoly on

telecommunications and ensure that on-line service providers can reach end-users on

reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions.

Awareness of the Internet is still lacking. The Internet was only introduced to

Egypt in 1993. Therefore, there is still a lack of appreciation for its capacities among

businesses, government, non-profit organizations and professionals. Few have been

trained on the use of the Internet. Private Egyptian universities are well equipped with

computing and networking facilities and literate Internet instructors. However, few of

the large public university professors are incorporating knowledge of the Internet in

their instruction. To date, the Regional Information Technology Institute (RITI)

located in Cairo http://www.riti.org is the main training institute in Egypt with respect

to Internet applications. RITI has trained over 2,000 government and private sector

employees through 160 training courses since April 1994. RITI is also the co-founder

of the Cairo Internet Conference and Exhibition (Cainet) http://www.cainet.org.eg

since its inception in 1996 becoming today the main Internet event for the community

in the region (Kamel, 1999). The conference had an average attendance of 1,200 per

annum in its first 4 years from different private, public and government sector

organizations contributing comprehensively to the awareness of the Internet in Egypt.

Language is a problem. The majority of Internet material is in English that

creates barriers to use the Internet in Egypt. Therefore, software vendors are

developing software applications to translate the English content into Arabic and to

15
enable the publishing of Arabic content on the web using the proper tools. In that

respect, the development and promotion of multilingual (Arabic/English) access for

various Internet services are one of the major technical and marketing challenges. It

will give Internet services a new dimension of penetration in new geographical areas

and new areas of applications like education and trade services that will increase intra-

country Internet traffic as well as international Internet traffic (Kamel, 1998).

Tariffs on goods and services delivered over the Internet is another challenge,

hence, their validity is questioned. The World Trade Organization advocates that the

Internet be declared a “free-trade zone.” The Internet lacks the clear and fixed

geographic lines of transit that historically have characterized the physical trade of

goods. Therefore, Egypt seconds that the Internet be declared a tariff-free

environment with regard to electronic commerce.

Financial and regulatory issues represent a set of challenges that needs to be

resolved. It is important; therefore, to realize that moving from a highly regulated

government such as Egypt into electronic commerce will not be an easy step to take.

The intensely dependent paper work cycles are deeply engraved in the government's

corporate culture. Thus, the newly digital format will be highly resisted from middle

and senior management levels. The amount of bureaucracy tied into the working

environment is very high on the government level and moving into an electronic

environment will need awareness, training and cultural adaptation and that is the

challenge that the Egyptian government in cooperation with the private sector are

currently undertaking (EECI, 1999).

Legal issues represent another challenge for application on the Internet such

as electronic commerce. Therefore, the Egyptian government supports the

development of a global uniform commercial legal code that recognizes, facilitates,

16
and enforces electronic transactions worldwide. Respectively, there has to be a legal

environment based on a decentralized, contractual model of law agreed electronically.

Such an environment will help eliminate administrative and regulatory barriers and

facilitate electronic commerce by encouraging government recognition, acceptance

and facilitation of electronic communications.

Intellectual property rights are also a major challenge. Therefore, the

development of a voluntary market-driven key management infrastructure will

support authentication, integrity and confidentiality. Therefore, Egypt has embarked

on a full-fledged program to combat intellectual property infringement by improving

the legislative framework through issuing and amending copyright laws, and

promoting awareness on the national, institutional and individual levels as to the

importance of protecting intellectual property rights (EECI, 1999).

In Egypt, the success achieved through government-private sector partnership

in commercialization of the Internet services will push the deregulation of other

value-added services in the country where the communication infrastructure

deployment is one of the promising areas for private sector participation. Coherence,

transparency and coordination should be the government’s guiding principles in the

information age. Organizations and institutions involved in determining regulations

and policies are encouraged to coordinate together to formulate a coherent electronic

commerce framework. Currently, a government entity is being formed to protect the

Internet consumer from possible electronic commerce crimes. The goals of the

association "Internet Consumer Protection Organization" are to protect and guide

Egyptian consumers, promote electronic commerce among Egyptian merchants on

national and international levels, and diffuse awareness and trust in electronic

commerce in Egypt (El Kassas 1998).

17
 Wide-scale up-to-date infrastructure deployment is another challenge. The

priorities of the government are mainly focusing on the deployment of the basic

telephone service all over the country. High-speed integrated networks are on the

agenda but not yet implemented. Private-sector participation in the establishment of

infrastructure will also be a new opportunity as Egypt will have large bandwidth

requirements for newly evolving multimedia applications.

The buildup of the Egyptian Internet with its "infostructure" and servers in

different disciplines is one of the major challenges we will face. The content buildup

has always been considered a role of governmental organizations exclusively. The

evolving private-sector ISP participation in Web development and hosting introduces

new challenges and new responsibilities for the validation and security of the

contents.

Agenda for the Future

The government of Egypt has prepared an action agenda for the year 2000 that

aims towards the design and development of a comprehensively installed and operational

information highway. The purpose of which is to support business and socioeconomic

development at large. The agenda includes 10 critical success factors that are invaluable

for the realisation of developmental objectives from the Internet and Egypt's information

highway. The factors are:

ٛ Establishing Egypt’s information infrastructure that will represent the building

block for Egypt’s information highway by establishing information centers in
government, public and private sector organizations.
ٛ Realizing inter-connectivity between government organizations and institutions,
public sector organizations and companies and the private sector with its various
forms and components.
ٛ Investing in training and human resource development with a focus on the
introduction and diffusion of information and communication technology
ٛ Making information publicly available and accessible through various
telecommunications media and information networks.
ٛ Developing the private sector through the identification of business opportunities
in high-tech industries and services.

18
 ٛ Reforming legislation and protecting intellectual property rights.
ٛ Building an on-line business and development society through the establishment
of and on-line trading and on-line investment society.
ٛ Accessing the globe and becoming an active player in the global information
highway.
ٛ Synchronizing with different development challenges that relates to the various
social, economic and environment challenges and problems that are daily
surfacing to the international community.
ٛ Building a smart and high-tech Egypt through the development of high-tech
projects based on the latest state-of-the-art information technology tools and
techniques such as Smart ID cards, Smart organizations and a Smart society.

Conclusion

The Internet is proving to be one of the most powerful amplifiers of

development as we approach the 21st century. It is becoming an online repository of

all that the global society has achieved across eras. The Internet has to be affordable to

reach the society at large in both developed and developing countries. The Internet has

to remain unrestricted, unfettered and unregulated. The Internet will continue to grow

and develop technologically, providing more and more value-added services to its

beneficiaries. The Internet has to reach every home, business, school, town and

country on the Globe without restrictions of time or of language. The Internet has to

be simple to reach the haves and have-nots. The Internet has to be freed from

incompatible laws that hinder the growth of electronic commerce, affect the protection

of intellectual property, and stifle freedom of expression and the development of

market economies. It also should protect privacy and confidentiality of transactions

conducted on the network (Cerf, 1999).

The Internet and its applications such as electronic commerce encompasses a

wide spectrum of activities that are dramatically expanding and undergoing radical

changes engendering a wide array of innovative businesses, markets and trading

communities creating new functions and new revenue streams. Electronic commerce

presents enormous potential opportunities for business and socioeconomic

19
 development. Its rapid implementation is an urgent challenge for firms, industries and

governments. Electronic commerce represents, for the developing world, an

opportunity to keep pace with the developed world and capitalize on the enormous

resources available making optimum use of the world’s fastest growing information

and communication technology on the planet, the Internet.

In light of these issues, this paper presented the concept of the Internet with

reflections on the Egyptian experience, the past and the agenda for the future to

promote and diffuse the electronic commerce culture in Egypt aiming at realizing

business and socioeconomic development as we approach the 21st century.

References

Cerf, V. The Internet is for Everyone. Speech to the Computers, Freedom and Privacy
Conference. April 1999.

Egypt Electronic Commerce Initiative, March 1999 (not yet published)

El Kassas, S. Towards Electronic Commerce in Egypt Certificate Authority for Egypt.

Proceedings of the Cairo Internet Conference and Exhibition, Cainet. Cairo,
Egypt. March, 1998.

Hashem, S and Ismail M. The Evolution of Internet Services in Egypt: Towards

Empowering Electronic Commerce. Proceedings of the Global Marketplace
for SMEs Conference, Manchester, UK. November 1998.

Kamel, S. Information Superhighways, a potential for socio-economic and cultural

development. Proceedings of the 6th International IRMA Conference on
Managing Information and Communications in a Changing Global
Environment, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 21-24 May 1995.

Kamel, T. Evolution of the Internet in Egypt. Proceedings of the 4th Cairo Internet
Conference CAINET’99 Cairo, Egypt. 8-10 March 1999.

Kamel, T. Internet Commercialization in Egypt: A Model from Africa. Africa

Telecom Conference Proceedings, Johannesberg, South Africa. May 1998.

Mintz, S. The Internet as a Tool for Egypt’s Economic Growth. An International

Development Professionals Inc. Report. October 1998.

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