The marketing trip by Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) to the US to promote investment in the North African country's ICT sector seems to have been successful.

Charles Phillips, CEO of global enterprise software company Infor and senior staff from the company in the India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) region met with the MCIT Minister Yasser ElKady yesterday to discuss plans for investment in Egypt's ICT sector.

Phillips committed to building an office in the country during the meeting which followed up on the first round of talks in the US last month.

"The availability of technical staff, the supportive business environment and sustainable growth of the ICT sector are among those reasons [for investing in Egypt]. This is in addition to the ongoing economic reforms whose results have begun to emerge," said Phillips.

Minister ElKady's visit to the US has already seen several commitments made by the companies he met in Silicon Valley and New York. E-payments company Mastercard has announced plans to work with Egypt by providing government support services to citizens via smart cards, among others, while Cisco has expressed its willingness to participate in national ICT projects by establishing two training centres in Borg El Arab and New Assiut Technology Parks.

Elkady also met senior executives from General Electric, Dell, SAP and HP, although no plans for investment have yet been announced by these companies.

ElKady has met with more ICT multinationals since his charm offensive in the US including Schneider Electric and officials from Google in the MENA region led by the Managing Director Lino Cattaruzzi at the end of March

ElKady discussed the efforts by Egypt to enable technological trainees and help them compete in international markets during his meeting with the Infor team according to a statement from the ICT Ministry.

"He highlighted the role of the Ministry and its affiliates in implementing a number of initiatives and projects, and in cooperating with a number of universities to provide a base of enabled technology trainees, thereby meeting the requirements of companies investing in Egypt and providing excellent job opportunities. The ICT Minister pointed to the incentives offered to investors in technology parks, referring to the contracts signed with several global companies and factories interested in taking advantage of these opportunities."

Infor's venture into Egypt comes nearly a year after it announced a new focus on India, Middle East, and Africa with the creation of its IMEA business unit in June 2016.

Tarik Taman, General Manager for IMEA at Infor said at the time that growth opportunities in the region are "virtually limitless".

"India is one of the few major economies worldwide still growing near double digits, the Middle East is transforming from oil-based economies to the private sector driving large investments in the cloud, and Africa is the last economic frontier - all factors that made creating a dedicated IMEA region a compelling decision for Infor."

Infor employs 15,000 developers and employees in 41 countries worldwide.