ITIDA hosts ‘The Future of Work in Egypt’ forum in collaboration with Udacity, Freelancer

CAIRO – 15 December 2020: Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) announced Tuesday that it virtually hosted ‘The Future of Work in Egypt’ forum on Monday, Dec. 14.

ITIDA clarified in a statement that the forum came in collaboration with the global online learning platform, Udacity and the freelance marketplace website, Freelancer, to introduce and share new business frameworks and models relevant to the highly volatile and digital dependent world, especially post the global pandemic.

The ‘The Future of Work in Egypt’ forum included discussions on adopting new business models in an ever-so- changing world, training the future workforce of Egypt, freelancers and freelance market, future work challenges and how to overcome them. 

According to the statement, the event featured local and global industry experts, from IBM, Deloitte, Kuwait Food Company (Americana) and Freelancer.

It also highlighted businesses’ experience with freelancers and freelancing marketplaces, what challenges to expect, how to overcome them, and the value that freelancing brought to their companies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed the importance of digitization and shifting the way both companies and employers work” ITIDA’s CEO, Amr Mahfouz said in his opening remarks.

“We fully acknowledge the importance of going all-digital, and we have been more than ready with our plans in place, including offering many initiatives dedicated to support the mission of digitizing Egypt”, he added.

ITIDA CEO noted that freelancing has become the new normal of work, especially during the pandemic. It provides unparalleled access to skills and talents at a competitive cost, with agile performance, and can efficiently serve technical and business demands.

“It is s a large market size that we are going to tap into with getting our youth well-equipped with right mix of skills while encouraging the freelancing approach amongst our local enterprises.”, Mahfouz confirmed.

Meanwhile, the forum incorporated the launch of the new Talent Alpha Program, which aims to offer Egyptian companies with new business strategies for engaging with a flexible workforce. In this light, ​The Talent Alpha Sponsorship Program allocates USD500 to eligible companies, ​ who ​will additionally receive tailored support from Freelancer.com to help define their enterprise’s technical needs and hire freelancers accordingly.

ITIDA stated that Egypt is among few countries that have shown remarkable resilience in the face of Covid-19, thanks to the enormous investment made in developing its infrastructure not only in the ICT sector, clarifying that the sector witnessed investments of  $1.6 billion in the last three years.

“The country is among the first five countries, which are expected to achieve economic growth in 2020,” it added.