Egypt's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) has participated in the 13th annual meeting of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS) of the Information, Computer and Communication Policy Committee (ICCP) during the period of 23-24 April 2009 at the organization headquarters in Paris. 60 participants from 24 countries attended this meeting, representing different Ministries of Communication and Information Technology and Statistical Bureaus, beside some representatives of international organizations such as the ITU, UNCTAD, ECLAC, European Commission and UNESCO.
This meeting discussed several important issues related to the Information Society Indicators, especially new indicators and methodologies presented by the international organizations, in addition to sharing some countries' experiences and lessons learned from some participating countries such as France, Canada and India.
MCIT has participated in the meeting through a presentation made by Dr. Nagwa El Shenawy, Head of Information Centre, MCIT. The presentation illustrated the Egyptian experience in measuring the internet economy based on the OECD methodology. Egypt's presentation was appreciated by most of the participants especially Mr. Tony Clayton, Head of Economic Analysis Division, Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Mr. Daniel April, Chief Broadcasting and Telecommunication Surveys, Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division and head of the Canadian Delegation, due to the outstanding Egyptian progress in the field of the Information Economy's Indicators.
Egypt's presentation tackled the ICT Measurement in Egypt, through an overview of selected projects:
- Developing a new price index for ICT services in Egypt.
- Information and Communication Technology Indicators Project:
• ICT usage by households and individuals.
• ICT usage by private businesses.
- The impact of the ICT sector on the Egyptian economy.
Then, the presentation moves to presenting the main challenges and lessons learned from the Egyptian experience.
The meeting concluded by proposing 5 main expert groups:
1- Measuring network activity and behavior: to develop a conceptual framework for measurement.
2- Understanding engagement in technology use: to develop a conceptual framework and review best practices in measurement.
3- Linking surveys to measure ICT impact: to promote the analysis of linked surveys and develop statistical recommendations for data linking.
4- Synergies between official and private ICT data: to bring stakeholders together and explore potential synergies, particularly as regards the measurement of Internet Traffic Flows.
5- Updating methods and definitions, eg: e-commerce, e-payments, mobile broadband, green ICT, ICT trade classification.