Egypt, China pen 5 MoUs to strengthen telecom, IT cooperation
Updated 9/8/2024 4:44:00 AM
Arab Finance: Egypt has signed five memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with China to enhance cooperation in communications and information technology, with the agreements focusing on manufacturing, outsourcing, and capacity building, as per a statement.
The deals include establishing three factories for fiber optic cables and communications equipment, along with three centers to export outsourcing services, creating 800 jobs in areas such as software development, optical networks, and green transformation.
Additionally, a $300 million technological investment fund and a data center will be created, along with four centers and labs to train over 3,250 specialists.
The first MoU signed between Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Wuhan Fiberhome International Technologies Co aims at establishing a factory for fiber optic cables in Egypt.
This factory will be built on 10,000 square meters, producing 1 million core kilometers of fiber and assembling 500,000 communication devices annually, while creating 200 jobs in its first phase.
It also includes a research and development (R&D) center for optical networks and green technology and a training center for network engineers and technicians.
The second MoU involves cooperation between ITIDA, Tsinghua Unigroup, Telecom Egypt, and the Applied Innovation Center (AIC) to set up a data center for the Chinese group in Egypt and establish a $300 million technology investment fund, with Tsinghua providing 60% to 70% of the funding.
The deal also includes plans for a R&D center focused on electronic chips and AI for Arabic language models.
Huawei Egypt signed the third MoU with ITIDA to expand its operations and launch a development center in Egypt.
This center will focus on developing local software solutions and training 1,500 developers in cloud computing, AI, and other advanced technologies by 2025.
As for the third MoU, ITIDA and Huawei will cooperate on extending the Chinese firm’s operation in Egypt and launching Huawei Egypt’s center for development this year.
This center will focus on R&D in local industrial solutions, including programming, training developers, and cloud computing.
The fourth MoU sees ZTE cooperating with ITIDA and the National Telecommunications Institute (NTI) to locally manufacture ZTE products and establish two training labs powered by 5G technology and gigabyte passive optical network (GPON).
These labs will provide training for up to 1,200 trainees over three years in the domains of IT and communication.
The fifth MoU, signed between ITIDA and HENGTONG Group, involves setting up a new company as well as the group’s second factory in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) on a 40,000-squre-meter land, with $15 million in investment.
The new company will operate within fiber optic cables and fiber to the x (FTTX) manufacturing, while the new factory’s annual production capacity is expected to reach 3 million kilometers of optic fiber cables with 40% of its output destined for export to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
HENGTONG will also collaborate with Telecom Egypt to develop training programs for students in fiber optic technologies.
The singings came on the sidelines of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) 2024.
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