PR-Inside reports on the latest account from companiesandmarkets.com on the rapid advance of Egypt towards a higher degree of IT sophistication. Key findings of the report include the following:
* while computers remain a luxury item for many Egyptians, a large, young population and increasing affordability should underpin growth.However, overall spending on software remains low, amounting to an estimated US$137m in 2007. One explanation for the low spending on software is piracy, with up to 80% of some IT goods being counterfeit.
* the overall IT market size is expected to increase from US$889 million in 2007 to around US$1.3 billion in 2012.
* following the government’s plan to make Egypt an outsourcing and call-centre hub, IT services should grow rapidly over the next forecast period.
* the ‘Computer for Every Home’ programme in 2006, with more than 1.4m sales, was followed up in 2007 by the launch of ‘Nation Online’.
* in the past year or so, an increasing number of tech firms have taken advantage of lower costs to set up in Egypt.
