While it would be naïve to expect the recent protests in the Middle East and Africa will have no impact on businesses’ decisions around outsourcing, I was surprised by your assertion that those analysts that have ranked Egypt as one of the most attractive locations for outsourcing “were all wrong.”

The multinational corporations that have operations in Egypt firmly believe that the core proposition of the country’s outsourcing industry – based on the excellent quality and cost effective talent pool – remains. Under my leadership, ITIDA continues to develop Egypt’s IT industry and we are confident that Egypt remains an attractive proposition to investors in outsourcing and the wider IT industry.

As Professor Taylor states in the video, businesses need to take into consideration a range of scenarios which could lead to disruption of service, whether that is political change, social unrest, industrial action or, indeed, natural disaster. As far as ITIDA is concerned, we continue to incorporate learnings and to put in place contingency plans to minimize the risk of any future disruption to the Egyptian ICT industry.

Egypt today has a renewed sense of optimism. We are all excited about the future and confident in the continued growth of our outsourcing industry.

The IT industry remains a central pillar of Egypt’s economy and both ITIDA and the Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT) remain fully committed to its development. Initial feedback tells us that international companies feel that Egypt continues to offer an attractive proposition to investors in the outsourcing and wider IT market and we are already in talks with potential new international investors.

Eng. Yasser ElKady
CEO, ITIDA

http://www.twitter.com/markhillary

regards,
Mark

See also:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1728336/dead- ringers-shehzad-nadeem