Despite Political Turmoil, Egypt's Outsourcing Industry Keeps Growing

Despite political uncertainty, Egypt's IT outsourcing industry has been seeing robust growth with international companies opening up new branches and hiring more employees.

According to Egypt’s information technology development agency (ITIDA), country’s ICT export revenue exceeded $1 billion for the first time, setting a milestone in the nation’s outsourcing industry.

“Passing its $1 billion target Egypt is now setting itself up for its next wave of growth - targeted at $10 billion by 2020,” the agency stated in a press release.

While the number of ICT companies increased by 12 percent, employment in the industry grew 10 percent.

Many a number of international companies are shipping their jobs to Egypt these days, and they include Valeo, Stream International, Orange (News - Alert) Business Services, HSBC and Sutherland.

It seems that foreign companies are ignoring Egypt’s growing political uncertainty and expanding their business rapidly.

“There have been a number of fantastic ICT success stories as Egypt continues to mark its appeal to global companies with 17 new investments by multinational companies in the past two years and a number of substantial deals taking place in the last 12 months,” according to ITIDA's CEO, Eng. Yasser ElKady.

Motorola (News - Alert) expanded its presence in the region this year with a new office and Regional Engineering Center in Cairo, designed to be a key office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Stream International, Orange Business Services (News - Alert), HSBC and Sutherland have all also expanded in Egypt, with Sutherland increasing its staff this year by 146 percent to 460 people.

Likewise, Valeo, the French automotive supplier, has increased the number of newly graduated Egyptian engineers this year - from 278 in December 2010 to 420 in December 2011.

“We will continue to position Egypt as one of the key outsourcing destinations and it is evident we have already seen significant positive results. We want to continue to extend all the necessary support to Egyptian and multi-national companies and we are positive that training and supporting the talent pool along with other initiatives will have considerable impact in 2012 and beyond,” ElKady added.