[UgaBYTES] Uganda’s PM visits Egypt’s Smart Villages

[Mwathi Francis]

Professor Apolo Nsibambi the prime minister of Uganda recently took time to
visit smart villages in Egypt and such facilities could be replicated in
Uganda in the near future. This was during his five-day working visit to
Egypt earlier in the month at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart Dr.
Ahmed Nazif. According to the information officer in the Office of the Prime
Minister, Apolo Munghinda, Nsibambi and Nazif met to discuss bilateral
issues. Egypt is interested in cooperating with Uganda to achieve
development goals and open new aspects of economic, trade and investment
cooperation, the Egyptian PM Nazif said. The first phase of the smart
villages was inaugurated in September 2003. The Egypt Smart Village focuses
on technological activities in the field of communications and information
technologies.

It was founded to accommodate prominent multinational and local companies in
the field of telecommunications and information technologies while sharing
the ground with the highest governmental authorities and organizations in
related fields. Companies have the option to rent, buy offices, or buy land;
however, all buildings must comply with a specific architectural style code.
Smart Village occupies three Million square meters, allocating 10% to
buildings and 90% to landscaping. It accommodates Multinational and Local
Telecommunications and Information Technology Companies, Financial
Institutions and Banks, together with Governmental Authorities. Cairo's
Smart Village is only the first of several high-tech parks that will be
located in cities all over Egypt. The Smart Villages are part of an
initiative to create technology districts all over Egypt. The main ICT
infrastructure of the Smart Village consists of the following:

·         High-speed network for data, voice, and video transmission.

·          Virtual private network (VPN) connection,   Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) capabilities and data   center.

·         Cable TV and video conferencing systems.

·         State-of-the-art power network that meets international standards
and codes of practice.

·         Uninterrupted power supply and standby generators.

Smart villages are part of the incentives available from the Egyptian
Government for ICT investors in the country. Others are:

1.      Tax Breaks (5-10 year tax holiday) from the existing 40% current
corporate levy for new contact centres wishing to establish operations in
Egypt.

2.       Free Trade Zones for companies to establish operations (e.g. the
case of Smart Village Cairo).

3.      Subsidies of up to $68 million to support training, technology &
marketing.

4.      Modern and reliable fixed line, mobile and Internet networks.

5.      Low Telephone rates into Western Europe at $0.07 per minute and into
North America at $0.05 per minute.

6.      Low Telephone rates International 2 *megabits per second (*Mbps)
circuit (E1) monthly rental is $3,800 / month.

7.       Partnerships with several major communications firms to train IT
engineering graduates including Siemens; Alcatel; Cisco & Lucent


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Francis Mwathi
Support Community Facilitator
UgaBYTES Initiatives (www.ugabytes.org)
Telecentr.org (www.telecentrecommunity.ning.com)
Tel: +256 414 370163
Mob: +256 783 010269
Skype: francis.mwathi
E-Mail: mfrancis at ugabytes.org