The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat and the Minister of Culture Ahmed Fouad Hanno have held an extensive meeting at Creativa Innovation Hub in Giza, in the presence of several senior officials from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the Ministry of Culture.
The meeting reviewed the progress made in joint projects aimed at driving digital transformation within the Ministry of Culture, leveraging ICT to promote culture, and facilitating access to its cultural and artistic content through digital platforms. The two sides discussed key accomplishments in several projects, most notably Egypt’s digital heritage platform, the development of Cairo Opera House’s website and mobile application, and the Egyptian National Library and Archives’ documents archive and website.
In addition, the meeting highlighted the ongoing efforts to implement the digital institutional development project within the Ministry of Culture, which aims to prepare the Ministry for digital transformation. The project also focuses on automating its operations, sustaining digital transformation, building and developing the digital capacity of employees and beneficiaries, improving service quality, and delivering proactive services tailored to citizens’ needs.
During the meeting, the ICT Minister underscored that this collaboration reflects the importance of culture in driving community development, noting that the cultural output of any society underlines its intellectual movement. He pointed out that Egyptian civilization is enriched with diverse heritage forms and unique intellectual contributions.
Talaat explained that the two ministries are collaborating on various projects, including AI-assisted translation books, e-books, and Cairo Opera House’s music library digitization. He explained that a pilot project would be launched at Creativa Innovation Hub in Giza to add to its tech innovation services the hosting of various artistic and cultural innovation activities supported by the Ministry of Culture. He said he looked forward to the project expanding across all 23 Creativa Innovation Hubs nationwide, underlining plans to reach 26 hubs next year.
For his part, Hanno emphasized that Egypt’s rich and diverse cultural heritage is a legacy for all humanity, making its preservation and development a top national priority. He pointed to the importance of establishing a framework of positive cultural values within Egyptian society that respects diversity while empowering Egyptians to access knowledge, engage with contemporary global developments, understand Egypt’s history and heritage, and ensure their rights to participate in and produce culture. He also stressed the need to promote innovation and creativity across various cultural and artistic fields while nurturing talents and innovators.
Following the meeting, the two ministers toured Creativa Innovation Hub in Giza to explore its activities. Established by MCIT as part of a nationwide expansion plan, the Hub features high-tech labs, training rooms, and dedicated spaces for nurturing digital innovation, such as brainstorming camps, business incubators, and startup accelerators. Moreover, the hub hosts networking events, connecting entrepreneurs with potential investors, and the Bootcamp for Accelerator Managers: Egypt (BAM Egypt) program, held in collaboration with 500 Global to enhance the capabilities of those supporting the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem.
During the tour, the two ministers met with a group of young entrepreneurs whose tech startups are incubated within the hub. The entrepreneurs showcased their project ideas and discussed the services offered to them through the hub. The two ministers also met with students and freelancers benefiting from the hub’s co-working space.
In a similar vein, the two ministers witnessed the signing of a cooperation protocol between MCIT and the Ministry of Culture to leverage IT to reinforce Egypt’s cultural leadership. The protocol outlines two projects: one aimed at developing a digital culture palaces platform, and another focused on creating a mobile application for e-books.
The cooperation aims to leverage ICT to preserve and sustain Egypt’s cultural heritage, raise and promote cultural awareness, identify and nurture talents and innovators, enhance Egypt’s cultural heritage, and improve its global cultural standing.
The three-year protocol covers five key pillars. The systems and applications pillar focuses on creating and developing a digital culture palaces platform and application as well as an e-book application to offer a wide range of cultural and heritage books while ensuring intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and providing a secure, reliable platform for readers to purchase digital books through the Ministry of Culture.
The content creation and accessibility pillar leverages technologies like 3D, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), among others to produce interactive content. It also provides and facilitates access to audiovisual digital content for artists, creatives, and innovators on the digital culture palaces platform, alongside readable content available on the e-book app.
Furthermore, the third pillar comprises the provision of the infrastructure, hosting services, equipment, and licenses required for the developed systems entailed by the protocol. The fourth pillar involves training and upskilling personnel to run and manage these systems. The fifth emphasizes promotion and operation through developing and implementing a promotion strategy, leveraging social media as a core marketing tool, and establishing an operational framework for the platform.
The protocol was signed by the Vice ICT Minister for Institutional Development Ghada Labib and the Acting Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture Amr El-Bassiouny.
The signing ceremony was attended by the Advisor to the ICT Minister on Digital Transformation Mahmoud Badawi, the Head of the Digital Heritage sector Hisham El-Deeb, along with other MCIT officials. From the Ministry of Culture, President of the National Library and Archives Osama Talaat, the Chairman of the General Egyptian Book Organization Ahmed Bahi ElDin, the Head of the National Center for Translation Karma Sami, the Chairperson of Cairo Opera House Lamiaa Zayed, and the Manager of the Digital Transformation Unit (DTU) Neveen Fekry joined the meeting.
https://tinyurl.com/57wy93pz
#DigitalTransformation #DigitalEgypt
