What is Building Blocks

Emerging information technologies provide a solid and promising platform to support economic development. In that respect, the information and communication technology sector has been one of Egypt's strongest economic sectors with increasing prospects for job creation, productivity, scalability, impact and growth. One of the subsets of ICT, the software industry, is gradually becoming more visible, stronger and mature in terms of output and impact both locally and beyond. Software is arguably the best entry platform for developing nations, like Egypt, into the global ICT production complex. Local companies and startups in the software development space have started their operations over the last decade trying to capture a segment of the regional and global market opportunities. This article assesses the developments in the software industry in Egypt and the potential role it can play as a contributor to economic development through the establishment of an export-oriented outsourcing software industry capitalizing on one of Egypt's primary resources, human capital.