Nagwa ElShenawi The Cabinet Information & Decision Support Center (IDSC) -Egypt nagwash@idsc.eg May 2001

1. INTERNET eCommerce in Egypt Nagwa ElShenawi The Cabinet Information & Decision Support Center (IDSC) -Egypt nagwash@idsc.gov.eg May 2001

2. Table of Contents • Profile of Electronic Commerce in Egypt • Egyptian Electronic Commerce Initiative • Analysis of Barriers of EC in Egypt and the way forward • Factors affect the diffusion of Electronic Commerce in Arab world

3. Internet/Telecom Environment in Egypt in numbers... • Teledensity in 99/00 11 line/100 person • ISP’s in 2001 60 • Users 99/00 400k • Total Bandwidth in 2000 4Mbit/s Source: Ministry of Telecommunication & Information Technology,

4. Electronic Commerce Activity in Egypt B2C B2B

5. Online catalogs GMC

6. Phone and email contact / Cash on delivery

7. International payment

8. DSC EDI Environment DAMIETTA CASE STUDYTHE PROBLEM REQUIREMENTS Non-EDI environment

9. EDI Internet EDI Software APPLICATION INTERFACE DSC CASE STUDYEDI TECHNICAL SOLUTIONINSIDE THE COMPANY C O M M

10. EDI Method of communicating business documents electronically. Documents include purchase orders, invoices, shipping instructions and notifications. Used mainly in business to business Electronic Commerce. Using the Internet as a transfer media.

11. Business Cycle EDI EDI No Paper Work

12. DSC EDI environment DSC CASE STUDYA SUCCESS STORY EDI OVER INTERNET EDI environment

13. EC Initiative : • National EC committee founded in October 1998 • All key ministries (Foreign Affairs, Justice, Economy, Trade,Finance…etc • Set up Egypt’s electronic Commerce initiative. • Launched in Sept. 1999

14. Financial Legal & Regulatory Government Role Market Access EC Progress-To-Date

15. Legal & Regulatory Issues Egyptian EC Law Technology Development Committee 14 Governmental bodies 12 chapters 38 articles Consumer protection, Taxes, IPR, DS Customs, contracts, Security Unicetral, Europe, Japanese

16. Financial Issues Government stated aim “cash-less society” Establishment of Smart Card Processing Co. Issuer & Acquirer Personalisation Authorisation Clearing, settlement, reconciliation Terminal installation & Maintenace

17. Government’s Role Policy National Plan for ICT Business Rules Electronic government

18. Access Issues Telecommunication Infrastructure Bandwidth Cost Tele-density Infrastructure

19. Barriers to EC in Egypt • Awareness & Education • Social & Psychological • Ecommerce Infrastructure • Associated Cost

20. Awareness & Education • Consumer Awareness • Corporate Awareness

21. Ecommerce Infrastructure • Lack of a Certificate Authority • Lack of SET Compliance

22. Social & Psychological • Resistance to Change • Territorial Behavior • Generation Gap • Language Barriers

23. Associated Cost • Individual Spending on IT • Hosting Cost • Website design and implementation • Internet Access • Computers • Individual spending on IT is $5/year, while 1000$/year in Switzerland. Per capita income in Egypt is 1200 $/year, while $20 k in Switzerland. • Egypt = 60$ USA= $25 • $500 - 35 000 • $20/month in Egypt , $10/month in USA • In developing Countries is approximately • 10 times more expensive than in USA

24. Arab World

25. 250 200 150 million users 100 50 0 1995 2005 1985 Internet Growth

26. Tele-density in Arab Countries (1998) Telephone Line/000 389 400 350 300 245 236 250 200 143 150 95 92 86 81 100 60 54 53 50 0 Saudi Arabia Emirates Morocco Bahrain Tunisia Kuwait Algeria Jordan Oman Egypt Syria Source : World Bank , Country at a Glance Data

27. DNS in Arab Countries (2000) 19718 20000 16000 12000 8000 4640 4069 2828 4000 612 0 Egypt Arabia Saudi Kuwait Jordan Emirates United Arab Source : NW,Internet Domain Survey

28. Internet Users in Arab Countries (1999) 7 . 7 8 % Of Population 7 6 5 5 3 . 7 3 . 3 4 3 1 . 7 2 0 . 6 0 . 3 1 0 Egypt Saudi Oman QUAR Arabia Kuwait Bahrain Emirates United Arab

29. Number of PC’s in Arab Countries 120 106 93 100 80 PC 000 50 60 40 21 15 9 4 2 20 3 0 Syria Egypt Tunisia Oman Algeria Morocco Bahrain Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Source : World Bank , Country at a Glance Data

30. Factors affecting diffusion of E-Business Within the Arab World • Economic: • Average Income • Cost of using IT • Managerial & Administrative: • Lack of Legal Framework • Lack of Financial Institutions • Lack of Consumer Protection Laws

31. Factors affecting diffusion of E-Business Within the Arab World- Cont’d • Infrastructure: • Weakness of Technological Status • Weakness of Communication Network • Socio-Culture : • Illiteracy • Arabic Language • Content • Resistance to the Westernization Culture

32. Challenging the Barriers of Converting to E-Business • Role of Government: • Pioneer • Facilitator • Private Sector : • Pioneer • Partner

33. Challenging the Barriers of Converting to E-Business- Cont’d • Role of NGO’s: • Support • Development • Role of International Org. : • Providing Expertise • Finance

34. SO IS THERE ANY HOPE? !!

35. Conclusion Future... Hope.. & Work.. Hope ..that tomorrow will be better then Today.. Ongoing Work to transfer Hope to a Reality

36. THANK YOU Nagwash@idsc.gov.eg