• Egypt has gone up 55 places on the Government AI Readiness Index in 2020, occupying 56th position among 172 countries.
• The government is also working to implement the second phase of the project in the current fiscal year 2020/21
• That will entail investments of US$300m, in addition to creating the legislative and legal environment that governs the use of AI
Egypt has gone up 55 places on the Government AI Readiness Index in 2020, occupying 56th position among 172 countries. The index is constructed by Oxford Insights, a global consulting firm and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It measures the extent of governments’ willingness to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies based on use of AI platforms to help the citizens set on main pillars and 33 sub sectors including AI National Strategy; E-government Services; Innovation Capacity; and Data Protection and Privacy legislations. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said that AI is one of the most important priorities for the Egyptian government. The improvement in Egypt’s ranking on the Government AI Readiness Index reflects the efforts made by the Egyptian government for spreading automation particularly for developing communications infrastructure, with investments amounting to about US$1.6bn in 2019. The government is also working to implement the second phase of the project in the current fiscal year 2020/21. That will entail investments of US$300m, in addition to creating the legislative and legal environment that governs the use of AI.