Egypt has launched its first government data and cloud computing center.
Inaugurated on April 28 by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the data hub will serve as a central repository for all ministry data.
The facility will enable undefined artificial intelligence technology to be deployed across governmental operations including data analysis applications to help with decision-making, and will act as a centralized national data and disaster recovery center
In an expanse of desert 30 miles east of Cairo, Egypt, a new city is rising. Already boasting the tallest tower in Africa and the biggest cathedral in the Middle East, the city is one of a series of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s grand megaprojects intended to develop the country’s economy.
Construction of the “New Administrative Capital” began in 2016, and is being completed in phases. According to Khaled Abbas, chairman of the Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), the company overseeing the project, phase one is almost complete and phase two is expected to begin in the last quarter of this year.
Read more: A new city is rising in Egypt. But is it what the country needs?
Jesse Berst, founder of the Smart Cities Council, once sagely predicted, "If cities are our best hope for a better future, smart technologies are the path to that better future." The reason for this is simple. According to a Deloitte whitepaper about 5G in smart cities, urbanization is gaining speed around the world. Countries are turning to smart city technologies to overcome challenges in population and maximize existing resources. Smart cities represent a bridge towards a practical future of urban development.
I returned to Cairo in the summer of 2023, after 6 years. Naïvely, I expected to return to the Cairo of my childhood: to her sprawling streets, her dense traffic lanes and cacophony of car horns.
But almost immediately -on the drive from the airport, located on the outskirts of the city, moving towards downtown Cairo- I was struck by the wide, empty highways we were driving on, alerting me immediately to a vast amount of infrastructure development. For a country that was ranked second most at risk of a debt crisis after war-torn Ukraine, this seemed a pleasant surprise: an array of bridges, wide highways, all adorned with posters of President Abdel Fateh El Sisi’s face, and an array of Egyptian flags.
Read more: Smart Cities in Egypt: Utilising Techno-Utopianism to prevent Democratic Participation
Luxury developer Emaar Misr, a subsidiary of the UAE's Emaar Properties, is driving digital innovation with AI-enabled smart city solutions at Marassi, a 6.5 million sqm luxury development on Egypt's north coast, thanks to a collaboration with Salesforce, the global leader in customer relationship management (CRM).
Emaar Misr has deployed Salesforce CRM solutions including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Field Service, and Partner Community, which it has integrated with Marassi's systems for access and security, facilities management, and maintenance. This has enabled Marassi to deliver greater convenience to its 30,000-plus residents and 100,000-plus monthly visitors, while also maximizing the use of data to drive visibility, efficiency, and intelligence.