Wise Media in Cairo to address President and full cabinet of ministers

Inauguration of Egypt’s state-of-the-art industrial security complex sees Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice and Minister of Education address in-depth presentations to President Al-Sisi, Prime Minister and entire cabinet of government ministers. Opening speech on eGovernment and the smart digital society delivered by Sophie B. de la Giroday, President of Wise Media. CEO and Director of the facility opening remarks and leading the tour of the 1-billion dollar facility. President Al-Sisi commends his country’s technological capability delivering vision for digitizing the State.

A high profile event held on April 7, 2021 at the New Capital in Cairo saw the official inauguration of the first industrial complex built on the African continent and Middle East for 100 percent vertically integrated security product development and manufacture.

In the presence of President Al-Sisi, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and the entire cabinet of Ministers, proceedings included in-depth presentations of current digitization programs carried out by the Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, the Minister of Justice, Omar Marawan and the Minister of Education, Tarek Shawky. Before a highly inspirational and visionary inauguration speech by President Al-Sisi, the CEO and Director of the country's new state-of-the-art industrial complex gave the audience a detailed inaugural presentation of the massive new infrastructure created in just three years – by virtue of President Al-Sisi's personal initiative.

In his extensive address to the audience of government representatives and media, President al-Sisi spoke about the current challenges faced by the country and the opportunities opened up by the new venture. He said the personal information about each citizen will be treated as highly sensitive data, and that the state authorities shall be allowed to only view information that are related to the pertinent government institution. President Al-Sisi also commended Egypt’s technological capability – with the secured and smart documents complex coming at a cost of up to £E 1 billion. He said digitizing the state and achieving the governance of procedures will greatly contribute to curbing corruption.

In her opening remarks, Wise Media President, Sophie B. de la Giroday commented on the massive industrial investment and how Egypt witnesses the birth of a world-class center of excellence, where digital identities will be designed and manufactured with advanced materials and security features produced domestically and personalized on the basis of in-house expertise. According to what was disclosed in detail by its CEO and Director on the inauguration day, a unique and dedicated entity will be capable of serving all different ministries and establish the building block around which to construct a modern trust model for, where the government can finally establish an individual relationship with each and every member of today’s society.

“Secure digital identities are a fundamental token conceived to empower each and every citizen – even the most underprivileged and living in the most remote locations of the country,” she said. “They allow them to digitally assert his or her rights and should hold the promise for each and every member of society to enjoy the chance to deploy their talents, accessing a whole set of expanding services as a student, as a patient, as an employee or as a person looking for a job,” added Sophie de la Giroday.

According to what was presented to the high-profile audience gathered in Cairo for the event, fully autonomous domestic design and production of secure IDs are now possible in Egypt. All of the key technologies and competencies that are necessary to build the core enablers of secure transactions are now mastered in house at the new center of excellence. It comes as a surprise to many that Egypt invested in the sudden creation of this fully integrated industrial complex now mastering the entire spectrum of technologies that contribute to the development and production of secure digital identities. This Egyptian experience is likely to trigger discussions and inspire many more governments across the Middle-East and Africa highlighting the strategic importance of eGovernment technologies in developing a positive outlook for each country, with leading edge citizen identities acting as an essential building block of the rapidly evolving digital society."

Speaking during the inauguration, Finance Minister Mohamed Maeet said the complex aims to establish an integrated system between the ministry and the complex. He added that the complex will contribute to curbing forgery and smuggling, reducing public treasury losses and protecting the rights of the state and citizens.

Education Minister, Tarek Shawki, said co-operation with the new complex will help the Ministry handle a system that consists of 23 million students, 55,000 schools and 1.6 million teachers. He added the "ambitious" project of the digital identity of students, in cooperation with the complex, will help document information about each student throughout his/her educational journey.

Justice Minister, Omar Marwan, said the Ministry has cooperated with the complex to digitize the ministry's documents and combat forgery.

In a short period of 18 months, what is claimed to be the world's largest and most independent high-performance industrial complex for security printing was built in Cairo. The new complex includes a full cycle of possibilities for a single industrial production of all types of electronic biometric identification documents, payment cards, factories production of security paper and protective elements, cellulose and complex technical and automatic solutions. The development saw 4,426,567 kg of technological equipment and raw materials for the production of identification documents being delivered from 28 countries in cooperation with 160 companies.

NASPS provides services to public and private clients, providing services based on its own technology products and integration systems. Government and state bodies are offered solutions in the field of electronic identification documents, systems for personalizing identification documents using laser engraving in ID1 and ID3 formats, production of highly secure biometric passports and ID cards, as well as the creation of electronic government and integrated population registration systems.