Supporting Economic Resilience & Recovery from COVID-19 in Egypt through Digitalization

The UN-MoPED Inter-Ministerial Task Force on economic Impact of COVID-19 held a webinar to address the challenges and opportunities of digitalization in Egypt in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The UN-MoPED Inter-Ministerial Task Force on Economic Impact of COVID-19 was established as part of the Results Group on Prosperity, one of the four pillars of the UN Egypt Partnership Development Framework 2018-2020 (UNPDF). Government representatives of the MoPED, MoIC, MoIT, MCIT, MoM, MSMEDA, ABA and UN agencies attended this expert group meeting.

The Expert Meeting focused on the following issues:

- What global trends and opportunities for digitalization have emerged as a result of the global impact of social distancing and of the COVID-19 Crisis?

- Opportunities specific to the Egyptian context: How can digitalization help mitigate the constraints imposed on sectors negatively affected by the crisis? How can this reinforced importance of digitalization help overcome pre-existing challenges to digitalization in Egypt?

- Obstacles facing digitalization in Egypt: What are the main obstacles facing digitalization in Egypt? What policy options can be identified to overcome these obstacles?

- The issue of digital divide (across income groups and geographic areas) and the resulting inequality, especially inequality of opportunities: How to address this issue that will undoubtedly be exacerbated by further acceleration of digitalization? What policy options could be identified to ensure that no group of people (or areas) get left behind?

- What are the main (structural) measures that need to be undertaken in order to enable Egypt to unlock digitalization opportunities in a way that enhances the country’s competitiveness and economic resilience and supports recovery?

- What short-term actions could be identified, with a focus on quick wins based on international good practices in the world?