The European Union has agreed to finance 14 Egyptian IT projects in various fields including health, education, tourism, culture and e-commerce, the daily Al Ahram reported Sunday.
The projects will be implemented using IT and advanced communication technologies within the framework of the regional cooperation initiative between the EU and Mediterranean countries.
The EU announced the initiative late last year and allocated $14 million for the current phase of the project.
Agencies from 27 different countries applied for financing but only 16 regional projects were chosen, including the 14 from Egypt whose share reached 88 percent of all the projects nominated for funding, according to the paper.
The director of the information development program and head the initiative's liaison office, Sherif Hashem, said that the Egyptian projects approved by the EU "include a network for health information with the Mediterranean countries, another network for the Egyptian centers for burns and a third one for information on remote health and treatment in addition to e-commerce and services networks linking the region’s countries.”
Among the projects is an information initiative for publishing tourist and cultural information, in addition to a one for training and developing the textile industry and small and medium-scale industries, said Hashem, adding that these projects would be implemented by many countries with financial support from the EU reaching 80 percent of the costs. The remaining 20 percent of finance will be covered by the concerned countries.
The projects require between 1-3 years to be completed and their implementation will begin as of next January, said Hashem - Albawaba.com
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