Sherif Kamel

The emergence of e‐commerce in a developing nation

The information and communication technology evolution is affecting many nations around the world and forcing changes to business and socio‐economic development plans, and reflecting major implications on the realization of the concept of globalization. Egypt, as a developing country with an economy in transition, started to invest in building its communication and information technology infrastructure since 1985 as a vital tool for development. This paper describes the emergence of e‐commerce in Egypt with a focus on the challenges faced that relate to a number of social, technological, financial and legal issues, and the road map formulated in collaboration between the government and the private sector to diffuse e‐commerce in Egypt.

The use of information technology to transform the banking sector in developing nations

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The Impact of ICT Investments on Economic Development in Egypt

Since the mid 1980s, Egypt has realized significant growth in information and communication technology (ICT) usage across different sectors in the economy. However, in todays global environment, the challenge no longer lies in accommodating the growth of the ICT sector that introduced changes that are arguably the most important since the industrial revolution. The essence is the diffusion of ICT across the society and ensuring that it furthers socioeconomic development. Managing this transformational process requires cooperation and partnerships between different stakeholders in the society to ensure steady and successful progress towards the goal of realizing a fully developed information society. Moreover, in order to generate economic development and growth, ICT need to be transformed into economic activities offering services, applications and content that create new markets, reduce costs and increase productivity. While ICT are generally adaptable; their effectiveness in addressing development issues still depends on their introduction, adoption, diffusion and adaptation within a healthy and encouraging regulatory environment. In that respect, the importance of ICT in socioeconomic development in Egypt was realized since 1999 leading to the allocation of ICT on the government agenda supported by the private sector and the civil society. This article addresses the recent efforts that were exerted in Egypt, as an emerging economy, in terms of building its ICT sector while analyzing the associated investments and their impact on economic development.

The development of e‐commerce: the emerging virtual context within Egypt

The information and communication technology evolution is aggressively affecting the business world in the twenty‐first century. The magnitude of change in business development from a global perspective, unconstrained by time or distance barriers, has reached both developed and developing nations. E‐commerce currently represents 2 per cent of the global business transactions but promises to dominate the business environment during the course of the twenty‐first century. The successful presence of e‐commerce through the Internet has helped create low cost and high efficiency for product and service sales through a more dynamic and interactive venue of opportunities where the world becomes the marketplace.

Egypt's Ongoing Uprising and the Role of Social Media: Is there Development?

In an age, where social media is seen to be a new driving force and a vehicle with a significant impact on political transformation and change, this paper highlights some of the paradoxes and challenges it poses. It has become an important platform for the mobilization, organization and implementation of social movements around the world. However, Egypts uprising was a function of people, passion and not of any particular communication technology, social media tool or application. It was definitely not the Facebook, Twitter or social media revolution, it was the people uprising that capitalized on state-of-the-art technology to realize a dream of a nation in availing “bread, freedom and social justice.” Having said that, there is no doubt that social media boosted the peoples desire for a better future, democracy and socioeconomic development that was for many decades put on hold by the consecutive regimes that ruled Egypt since 1952. The role of social media was more of a catalyst, a driver, a communication tool that helped as a platform for societal change. Yet, the country is still in a state of flux driven by the force unleased through social media manifested in speeding-up the process and in the dissemination of information across different segments of the society irrespective of their social or economic background, location or age. Expectations are high and aspirations reflect the desire of a nation to level up to its full potential; it is going to take some time but undoubtedly Egypt is on the right track. This paper demonstrates the clash of generations between older state power and younger citizens and the role social media played in the political transformation in the build-up to Egypts uprising in January 2011 and beyond.

King Hotel Goes Online: The Case of a Medium Enterprise in Using eCommerce

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) usually face financial constraints that limit their resource development and hinder their technological advancement. In Egypt, SMEs comprise almost 99% of the non-agricultural private sector and 75% of the private sector in Egypt at large. It is an important contributor to the economy and affects a number of sectors including tourism. The increase in competition in the sector has driven a number of SMEs to turn to the Internet to gain competitive advantage and to leverage their position and attract more business. However, the successful integration of what is still an innovation into the business process and its application into organisational functionality requires careful institutionalization. There are many challenges that need to be carefully handled in addition to a number of societal and cultural factors that are integral to the process that need to be adapted. The role of the change agent at the SME level is vital to the success of the introduction of the technology, its diffusion, adaptation and acceptance by the different levels in the organisation. This case demonstrates the results of a study addressing the impact of introducing information and communication technology to small and medium sized enterprises in Egypt, represented through the experience of King Hotel in introducing the Internet as a platform for business development, the challenges faced, opportunities created, and lessons learnt for future implementations.

Electronic commerce in Egypt

The information and communication technology (ICT) evolution is affecting many nations around the world through one of its emerging transformational platforms, the digital economy. Therefore, electronic commerce (eCommerce) is increasingly becoming the way to trade and do business in the twenty-first century. It reflects a concrete example where emerging technologies can contribute to business, socioeconomic development, and growth for different societies. However, there are multiple challenges that exist that are creating a digital divide between the haves and the have nots that call for more inclusion and more effective mechanisms to deploy the advantages of technology so that the developing world capitalizes on the potentials of the much promising global marketspace. Africa is a continent with massive potential and its economy could be boosted if a state-of-the-art eCommerce platform is in place. Respectively, Africa’s emerging countries, including Egypt, with its economy in transition, started investing in building its information, communication, and technology infrastructure since 1985 as a platform for national development. This chapter describes the emergence of eCommerce as a vehicle for business development and the opportunities it represents for Africa with an emphasis on one of its emerging economies, Egypt.

Building an information highway

This paper demonstrates the experience of Egypt in introducing the concept of the Information Highway. It describes the role of information technology in terms of computing, information and communication in boosting socio-economic development planning and change in priority issues and sectors in the economy. The paper covers the build-up of the information infrastructure of various sectors in the economy using state-of-the-art information technology while accommodating to newly emerging issues such as Internet, Intranet and the concept of the information highway. The focus of the paper will be on a comprehensive government program that started in 1994 targeting the development of a national information highway putting Egypt on the front-end in terms of business and socio-economic development. The paper demonstrates how such an ambitious objective required massive build-up of a human, information and technological infrastructure. The paper, in that respect, covers the introduction and development of the concept of the information-based society while demonstrating its development phases, mission, objectives, framework, challenges and opportunities among others. Finally, the paper highlights some of the recommended areas for future research related to the development of information highways in developing countries capitalizing on the findings and the lessons learnt from the Egyptian experience.

DSS to support socio-economic development in Egypt

This paper provides new grounds for research and applications in designing, developing, implementing and institutionalizing decision support systems and their use in socio-economic development. The paper describes the experience of the cabinet of Egypt with socio-economic decision making and its implications on the emergence of a new type of information-based organization, the Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC). The paper demonstrates unconventional uses of decision support systems through the use of an issue-based management approach in the design and delivery of decision support systems. Such effort falls within Egypts comprehensive plan to introduce and rationalize the use of information technology at large in various key sectors in the economy. The paper includes decision support cases demonstrating the experience of the cabinet of Egypt in supporting decision making for socio-economic development with challenges faced and lessons learned.

ICT and Building a Knowledge-Based Society in Egypt

This article aims to evaluate Egypt’s progress on the road towards a knowledge society. The paper discusses the evolution and assesses the outcomes of ICT initiatives in place in Egypt. Equally, the paper analyzes the status and potential of factors that are necessary for the realization of such a society at this turning point in the country’s history. The paper pinpoints the progress achieved on many fronts and identifies necessary steps to match leading knowledge and digital societies. The paper suggests some useful strategies for the government to expand access and contribution to knowledge – promoting a shared knowledge society in co-operation with the private sector in order to bridge the gaps. Efforts should not only be focused on expanding and enhancing connectivity and technology, but should also promote content development, provide educational opportunities and foster a comprehensive enabling environment.