The Government of Egypt has facilitated the umbrella under which investors in ICT can easily maneuver their businesses. Unlike the past, the investor does ‘one-stop shopping’ to get everything done and start the business without a lot of time invested in procedures or in establishing the business. The Smart Village, on the outskirts of Cairo, is a massive-scale, high-tech zone that aims at being the all-round business district of the region. The Smart Village includes several multinational giants which encouraged many companies to move there and take advantage of the technology oriented setup.

The Smart Village lies on 450 acres of land. It now includes prominent companies such as Microsoft, Alcatel, and Vodafone in addition to a large scale call center, Xceed which has capacity for 2000 agents serving 12 countries. The facilities in the Smart Village make it a safe haven for the investor. The village includes a gigantic conference center, a public library, and exhibition hall, a hotel, a health center, a day care center, and full-fledged emergency services. The Smart Village includes an entire financial district dedicated to financial institutions, banks, and stockbrokers such as the Capital Market Authority and Misr for Clearing, Settlement, and Depository.

The Smart Village is setup with the highest ICT infrastructure available including high speed network, VPN connections. The Smart village has state-of-the-art technologies such as Cable TV, videoconferencing system, power network that meets international standards and codes of practice, as well as uninterrupted power supply and standby generators.

Egypt's core infrastructure is based on optical fiber 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps rings. This huge infrastructure is the fundamental layer that connects and delivers services over PSTN, mobile and packet-based networks across the country, in addition to class 4 switches in Cairo and Alexandria respectively. This nationwide optical core has been expanded not only to accommodate the increasing demand in voice and mobile services, but also to allow for full-fledged IP backbones to be built that absorb the exponential growth in data and internet traffic.

The following are the regional and international telecommunications links facilitate operations between Egypt and the rest of the world:
• SEA-ME-WE: This is the first submarine cable to pass between South East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe.
• SEA-ME-WE-II: is a second cable along the same route, but serves more countries and uses digital fiber optic technology.
• SEA-ME-WE-III: a third cable along the same route with extended coverage from Europe to Japan, Australia, and elsewhere in East Asia.
• The FLAG Project (Fiber Optic Link around the Globe): Egypt is a part of this world-wide project.
• There is a submarine cable shared with Italy and Greece
• A submarine fiber optic cable shared with Sudan.
• Regional microwave links to Libya and Jordan.
• Telecom Egypt (TE) satellite earth station with multiple connections to Intelsat, Inmarsat, and Arabsat.

Government Incentives Packages

The Egyptian government offers a generous incentives package to each investor as it values investments in business. The government works in partnership with each investor to customize an incentives package to cater to the investor's needs. Examples of these incentives include:
• The Egyptian government offers special tax exemptions and reductions for ICT industries.
• There are special reductions on land prices for investors in the ICT sector.
• Easing of export and import regulations.
• The Egyptian government offers training programs for professionals in the ICT industry that investors intend to recruit. The government offers training in IT, communications and networks according to investors' standards and specifications. These training programs are often offered at the government's expense.
• The Egyptian government assigns a government official to facilitate interaction with government organizations.

Egypt is on its way to becoming the ICT industry hub in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt is indispensable when it comes to working in the Middle East or Africa. The strong dynamic Egyptian marketplace provides potential for successful business.