In the Canada Egypt Business Council’s pursuit of knocking new doors of business opportunities and finding channels to better serve its members, introducing their businesses to a wide range of multinational companies and governmental authorities in Egypt, as well as keeping them updated with the latest developments of the different business sectors. CEBC and The Smart Villages Co. had the pleasure of organizing a special site visit at the Smart Village and an introductory tour around the project.
The program started with a presentation by Eng. Amr Aboualam, CEO, Smart Villages Co. followed by a visit to Xceed, the largest business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) Center in Egypt, followed by a visit to CultNat the Center of documentation of cultural and natural heritage.

After those impressive tours, the CEBC members attended a meeting headed by Dr. Hoda Baraka, First Assistant to the minister of Communications and Information Technology, Ambassador Ferry de Kerckhove, Ambassador of Canada to Egypt, Eng. Motaz Raslan, Chairman, CEBC, Eng. Yasser El Kady, CEO, Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and Eng. Amr Aboualam, CEO, Smart Village where they delved into the outcome of the Council’s latest trade mission to Canada, and the range of visits and meetings held there which was very much diversified in terms of nature of entities, although the focus was similar in many cases. During the meeting, the speakers mentioned that it was beneficial to meet with Canadian representatives of umbrella organizations such as MaRS, Export Development Canada and Montreal International. These organizations have work strands that are similar to the Egyptian IT Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and the recently announced Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC). A similarity that encouraged the Egyptian delegation to offer space for EDC at Smart Village in 6th of October Governorate, in addition to proposing to host interested trade missions in ICT.

Dr. Hoda Baraka mentioned that she has sent messages to Canadian governmental counterparts in addition to business and academic representatives articulating how the Egyptian side views possible cooperation, also together with the Egyptian diplomatic delegation in Ottawa, the Canadian diplomatic delegation in Cairo and Canada Egypt Business Council, MCIT and affiliates would like to pursue cooperation with Canada in the coming period.

The visit was adjourned by a business lunch that took place at the “Think Tank Pyramid” at the Smart Village, where members of CEBC together with the Smart Village CEO and staff members discussed new means of cooperation with the Smart Village in the near future.