ICT ministers from Egypt, Cyprus and Greece have signed a three-year tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at fostering cooperation in ICT and supporting research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The MoU was signed by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser ElKady, together with the Cypriot Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Marios Demetriades, and the Greek Minister of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Information Nikos Pappas.

A statement issued by the Egyptian ICT Ministry says the agreement is an outcome of the fourth trilateral summit between Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, The President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last October.

"The three leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation and partnership in several areas, taking advantage of the free trade agreements that each of the three countries agreed upon to access new markets," reads an excerpt from the statement.

The MoU also covers e-skills training and capacity building.

"The centre aims to train professionals from the three countries on internationally recognised e-skills, and increase opportunities for developing digital skills for their respective workforce through training programs, exchange of experiences and support for SMEs," the ICT Ministry explains.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for the year 2016 to 2017 placed Greece in 76th position for technological adoption, while Cyprus was positioned at 81 and Egypt in 106th place out of 138 countries.

The ITU's 2016 ICT Development Index, which compares 175 countries, placed Egypt in the 100th spot, Cyprus came in at number 54 and Greece secured the best position among the three in 36th place.

Egypt is in 5th place among African countries on the same list, behind Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa who make up the top three.

Egypt's ICT Minister has recently committed to improving the country's global standings by infusing ICT in the education system and adding digital content, information systems, applications and technological infrastructure provided by local and international IT companies.