Cairo: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly met with Engineer Atef Helmy, former Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Chairman of Prime Commercial Consulting Company, along with several company officials, to review efforts and steps to improve electronic services provided to citizens and investors, in collaboration with several ministries and government entities.
According to State Information Service Egypt, the Prime Minister emphasized that digital transformation is a high priority on the government's agenda due to its significant positive impact on developing government work and enhancing the efficiency of various government institutions. This initiative aims to facilitate procedures for both citizens and investors.
Engineer Atef Helmy presented key projects that Prime Commercial Consulting Company is collaborating on with multiple ministries and government entities. These projects are designed to enhance developmental outcomes, improve government performance, and achieve citizen satisfaction by facilitating access to services for citizens and investors.
One significant project highlighted by Helmy is the "Your Invoice is Your Protection and Reward" initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Finance. This project aims to involve citizens in the value-added tax system by incentivizing them to request receipts or invoices, thereby integrating the informal economy into the formal system. International studies show that such citizen incentive systems can reduce tax evasion rates by 5% to 16%.
Helmy discussed the company's vision for rebuilding the business environment through digital transformation. The new business environment will rely on a unified platform enabling investors to interact with all government entities seamlessly. This system, coordinated with the Supreme Investment Council and the Ministry of Investment, will use digital tools as a primary mechanism for interaction, ensuring governance and smooth business cycles.
A unified data file will consolidate information related to entities, accessible via the national ID number for citizens or economic entities. This new environment is expected to provide added value to investors by consolidating services under the "Economic Entities Platform," offering 80 services to replace around 1,100 existing services from various government bodies.
Helmy further explained that the design of the Economic Entities Platform covers all stages of economic entities' lifecycle, integrating services from the commercial registry and the General Authority for Investment. The next phase will focus on business start-up services, including licensing for various economic activities.
A practical model was presented to demonstrate the impact of the Prime digital transformation methodology during the business start-up phase. In this scenario, an investor setting up a spinning and weaving factory would only need to interact with the Economic Entities Platform, completing 8 service requests in 12 steps over 21 days, as per the Prime Minister's licensing regulations.
The meeting also reviewed several other electronic services aimed at benefiting citizens, coordinated with various government entities.