Moharram & Partners on community dialogue with private sector

CAIRO – 18 September 2019: The dialogue held between the government and the Parliament on laws and regulation, in coordination with the private sector, significantly contributed in attracting further investments to the Egyptian e-commerce sector, Founder and CEO of Moharram & Partners Moustafa Moharram said.

Moharram added to Egypt Today, on the sidelines of Egypt's second annual E-Commerce Summit held in Cairo on Tuesday Sep. 17, that one of the giant companies returned to operate in Egypt as part of foreign direct investment during the last three months, as a result of negotiations held in some occasions such as this summit.

He affirmed the importance of turning Egypt into a regional hub of e-commerce through having strong e-commerce sector, emphasizing the importance of having negotiations with private sector and e-commerce companies on laws and legislation.

CEO of Moharram and Partners clarified that the first edition of the summit, held in 2018, was the first policy dialogue on laws and legislation related to e-commerce.

The year “2018 witnessed a real leap of legislation, as government and parliament worked on data protection law, and cyber security law,” he said, adding that they are currently working on e-commerce transaction law.

He elaborated that as a result of reaching an agreement related to data protection and cyber security laws during the last period, all parties will be able to reach another agreement on new e-transaction law.

According to Moharram, the regulation of trading and processes on the internet is a challenge as the world is trying to figure out how to do so, but “we shouldn’t be afraid because Egypt has high-level legislators, so all what we have to do is to listen to each other.”

Moharram also pointed out that private sector has specific point view and applied techniques while legislators focus on specific goals.

“Such summit is a good start, and it’s important to continue holding such events, to send messages to investors and reassure their concerns including tax policies on the sector,” he stated.

On Tuesday, Sep. 17, CEO of Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Hala el-Gohary inaugurated the second edition of the Summit in Egypt. The summit was organized by robusta, which supports the provision of technology and technology solutions for multiple sectors.

A number of deputy ministers, government and major private sector companies' officials, and entrepreneurs attended the summit, with the participation of a large number of Egyptian and international companies in more than 15 different sectors.

The second E-commerce summit aims to identify the latest innovations and global trends in the field of digital transformation and its impact on the Arab region, and open the door for dialogues between the government and the private sector through a single platform that brings together the most important players and influencers in E-commerce and digital transformation.

The second edition of the summit mainly focuses on discussing three main axes, including strategies for working in E-commerce and the latest global trends, and payment methods and logistics, one of the most important services driving the digital trade.

The third axis covers the purchasing experience of the customer and how to develop it to cope with the global digital transformation by exploiting the latest technological innovations.