Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser El Kady paid an official visit to the United States this month, heading a high-level delegation for talks on Egypt-US cooperation in information and communications technology as well as promoting investments in these industries. From March 13-23, the Egyptian delegation held several meetings with senior officials at multinational companies such as Dell, Teleperformance, Cisco, Oracle, Honeywell and MasterCard in addition to touring Silicon Valley, the hub of US technology.

Egypt is focusing on digital transformation and setting up technology zones across the country. According to the ministry's statement, the trip came as part of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's directives to create a globally competitive electronics industry in Egypt through establishing a training program that is to initially include 16,000 trainees. In May 2016, Kady paid a visit to China on a mission to build strategic partnerships in technical domains.

Asmaa Hosni, the CEO of Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and a member of the delegation, told Al-Monitor, "Such visits are of a paramount importance to further expand dialogue with the countries that have taken great strides in hi-tech sectors. We need to turn Egypt into a digital society. Regarding the recent visit, it was highly fruitful and resulted in multiple cooperation protocols. These protocols will go into effect in the upcoming weeks. There are fixed schedules and action plans, not just ministerial talks. But not all projects are to be implemented within the year."

Hosni said that Kady toured 15 leading American companies, inviting them to invest in Egypt. Many companies agreed to establish branches in Egypt's technology areas and take part in establishing Egypt's "Knowledge City" in the new administrative capital, she added. This project, which is to be an educational and cultural center, was given the green light last year within the framework of the government's strategy to turn Egypt into a regional hub for information technology and outsourcing services.