EGP 36m collected through government e-payment portal since September: Planning Minister

Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said has revealed that EGP 36m has been collected through the electronic payment of the Egyptian government’s local services portal since September.El-Said also said that her ministry has set up a pavilion at the 24th edition of the Cairo International Exhibition for Information and Communication Technology (CAIRO ICT 2020). The exhibition, which was inaugurated on Sunday, will run until 25 November under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi. The exhibition is being held at the Egypt International Exhibition Center (EIEC) under the slogan "The Big Reset", with the participation of hundreds of specialists in the field of communications and technology.The minister added that the projects participating in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development's success include: the spatial information infrastructure system; the development of local services; the development of birth and death services; in addition to the system of counting untapped assets.El-Said said that the spatial information infrastructure system depends on building and making available an integrated spatial information infrastructure for the Egyptian government. It will use the latest and most advanced technologies in satellite imaging, along with the use of aerial photography, to produce unified base maps of Egypt.Besides this, the system will undertake the production of all spatial reports, including reports on spatial variables, follow-up for national projects, spatial analyzes, and spatial services. These will be conducted by the recently established National Center for Spatial Data Infrastructure (NCSDI), which has four sub-centres.These are: the Center for Access to Satellite Imaging Using Satellite Technology; the Center for Spatial Variables; the main SDI spatial data center covering base maps and regions layers; in addition to the spatial data analysis unit.El-Said added that her ministry launched the centre in August 2020 in cooperation with the Military Survey Department of the Ministry of Defence. It intends to closely monitor in detail the performance of state projects and their assets, whilst optimising the use of resources and rationalising government spending. It will also establish an integrated national planning system to guide Egypt’s development efforts. El-Said said that the centre provides a set of services, including: the availability and download of satellite images; the issuance of reports resulting from the analyses of satellite images; the issuance of base maps; uploading and updating spatial data for the various authorities nationwide on the base maps; and integration between data and specialised applications of the entities on maps.On the economic and social returns of the NCSDI and its subsidiary centres, El-Said said these entities will monitor the encroachment on state property and agricultural lands, as well as construction violations.They will form part of the shift towards a digital government that works to improve electronic services provided by the state, as well as reducing the cost of producing and circulating spatial information. The entities will also form part of the Egyptian government’s move towards the integration and analysis of spatial data at the state level to serve the country’s development plans. This will also aid work on trends, spending priorities, and the issuance of reports and performance indicators from the analysis of spatial data needed to serve all sectors in development projects.El-Said also referred to the Local Services Development Project, which has seen the development of 250 technological centres providing 120 services at the state level. The local services portal, lgs.gov.eg, was launched in August 2020, which currently provides about 40 services. The minister also indicated the development of 22 technology centres which will serve Egypt’s new urban cities, which has come alongside the Ministry of Housing’s development of about 160 e-services for the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA). A mobile technology centre initiative has been set up in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Development, that will see citizens gain easier access to local services. This includes requests for building permits that will use satellite images to inspect the validity of the site for construction, to save both time and cost.She also reviewed the system for developing birth and death services, pointing to the setting up of about 4,700 health offices on a central electronic database. These will be able to record birth and death data in real-time, in addition to providing technical support for health initiatives launched by the President.  El-Said said that an initiative has been implemented to count untapped state assets, which will work towards developing a vision to maximise their utilisation. She noted that the project’s technical secretariat is linked to the NCSDI, and the database for inventorying untapped state assets.This will ensure that a combined geo database is set up for the unused lands and real estate belonging to state agencies that are required to be disposed of by sale or participation. The move comes as part of the government framework to optimise the use of state resources.The programme works on limiting the use of geomatics applications to collect, store, model, analyse and display all- igital, descriptive and statistical data related to the state's real estate assets. CAIRO ICT Expo this year is expected to receive about 50,000 visitors to view a wide range of offers and services for telecommunications, technology, and electronic products companies.