By Wael Gamal
CAIRO, May 12 (Reuters) - Egypt expects the revenue of its outsourcing industry to more than double in two years to more than $1.1 billion, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel said on Monday.
Kamel said several international companies had started operations in Egypt in the past two months, boosting an industry which the Egyptian government says has sales of some $500 million.
"Egypt has the opportunity to become the gateway to outsourcing in Africa," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a telecom conference in Cairo. "This (growth) will be completely driven by the private sector as the government is only providing incentives and training people."
Information and communication technology (ICT) companies such as Cisco Systems <CSCO.O>, Google <GOOG.O>, IBM <IBM.N>, Microsoft <MSFT.O>, Oracle <ORCL.O> and France Telecom's <FTE.PA> Orange Business Services are already working in Egypt.
"I think this growth target in the industry in Egypt is quite realistic, taking into account that it is currently very small," said Tony Marson, senior analyst at U.S.-based consultancy Yankee Group.
"In Egypt they are taking care that its graduate pipeline make this growth sustainable, compared to west African countries where the pipelines are small," he added.
Egypt's outsourcing industry has the advantages of having about 80,000 technical graduates every year, a low cost labour force and a time zone near to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
But Kamel said cyber security issues had to be dealt with before they hindered growth.
"It is now a global issue and debate and it is time to take it seriously," he added.
Egypt has asked mobile phone companies to block services to anonymous subscribers as a public security measure.
The move came as Egypt tries to combat a wave of public discontent over rising prices and low wages that have sparked a series of labour and anti-government strikes, organised largely by mobile phone and over the Internet.
Kamel said the move was a part of a government strategy to deal with computer security but added that those measures were not enough.
"Cyber security is also about public awareness," he said. (Editing by David Holmes)
