The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talat has received the Italian Ambassador to Egypt Giampaolo Cantini to discuss enhancing cooperation in ICT areas, particularly digital transformation and post.
During the meeting, Talat presented the Egyptian efforts in achieving digital transformation and building Digital Egypt to render digital services to citizens and roll out the single card through which citizens receive their share from support programs. He added that a pilot project was implemented in Port Said City, with a number of digital financial services rolled out.
Egypt Post is one of the pillars of the digital financial system, especially as the huge number of Post Offices available nationwide are now able to accommodate the financial transactions of a number of digital payment cards, said the ICT Minister. He referred to the remarkable development achieved at Egypt Post, becoming one of the outlets that deliver Digital Egypt services.
For his part, the Italian Ambassador discussed the developments occurring in the Italian ICT sector, and the current efforts of the European Union to use ICT tools and the digital infrastructure to address the economic impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Cantini stated that Italy has a digital identity system that enables the access of citizens to digital financial services. He presented the Italian efforts in achieving digital financial inclusion for citizens, institutions and regions, and increasing digital awareness among employees of civil agencies, especially with the increasing volume of digital financial transactions amid the pandemic.
Cantini seconded enhancing cooperation between Italian digital financial institutions and Egypt Post, stating that a large number of Egyptians working in Italy will benefit from such cooperation. This will help facilitate electronic financial transactions and reduce the related administrative expenses, especially as the system adopted at Egypt Post is close to that followed by the relevant authorities in Italy, he added.
At the end of the meeting, the ICT Minister invited the Italian Ambassador to visit the Postal Museum to explore Egypt Post’s journey of development. In addition, Talaat, through the Italian Ambassador, invited his Italian counterpart to visit Cairo to discuss furthering bilateral relations in ICT areas.
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Egyptian National Post Organization (ENPO) Sherif Farouk.
