The World Bank Group has pledged to support Egypt’s push to build a competitive digital economy and accelerate AI adoption, as senior officials from both sides reviewed the country’s broadband expansion and the rollout of the second version of its National AI Strategy in a Cairo meeting.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Raafat Hindi met with Paschal Donohoe, the World Bank Group’s Managing Director and Head of Knowledge Experts, to discuss ways to deepen cooperation on digital transformation and AI. The meeting followed talks between Hindi’s team and World Bank officials on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva last week, where the two sides agreed to continue coordination.
Donohoe framed the pledge around what he described as an intensifying global contest in the digital economy, in which “knowledge has become as important as finance.” He said Egypt had laid strong foundations for digital transformation, and that sharing practical solutions and expertise in data governance, digital regulation and institutional capacity building accelerates investment and innovation. The Bank, he said, was committed to helping Egypt adapt global expertise to its own national priorities.
Hindi outlined a next-phase strategy focused on accelerating digital transformation, upgrading digital infrastructure, developing capacities and attracting investment into the information and communications technology sector.
The bulk of the substantive discussion centred on Egypt’s National AI Strategy 2025–2030, the second version of the country’s AI plan, which President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi launched in January 2025. That strategy aims to raise the ICT sector’s contribution to Egypt’s GDP to 7.7% by 2030, generate $42.7 billion in AI-related economic value, establish more than 250 AI companies and develop a national AI talent pool of 30,000 people. The two sides reviewed the expansion of AI applications inside Egypt’s state administrative apparatus, the ministry’s capacity-building programmes for public sector employees, and applications developed by the Applied Innovation Centre.
Officials also reviewed broader digital infrastructure work, including efforts to expand high-speed internet availability and improve telecommunications services in villages under the presidential “Decent Life” initiative. Discussions extended into public-private partnerships, digital sovereignty, corporate investment in data centres, the legislative and regulatory framework for data governance, and online child protection.
The Egyptian side included Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) CEO Ahmed El-Zaher, Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation Affairs Mahmoud Badawy, ministerial adviser for technological skills development Hoda Baraka, head of the central administration for international relations Samah Aziz, and ITIDA deputy CEO Mahmoud Safaratah. The World Bank delegation included Stephane Guimbert, Country Director for Egypt, Djibouti and Yemen; Ari Naim, International Finance Corporation manager for North Africa and the Horn of Africa; Sylvia Solf, digital transformation and AI practice manager for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan; and Zaki Khoury, senior digital development specialist.
The delegation also visited the Valeo AI development centre in Smart Village — the Cairo technology zone that houses the French automotive technology company’s Egyptian R&D operations, one of a growing set of foreign-backed AI development hubs anchoring Cairo’s positioning as a regional AI investment destination.
The pledge lands as the World Bank’s engagement with African AI policy has been visibly widening. Its $2.48 billion Inclusive Digitalization in Eastern and Southern Africa programme is currently underpinning COMESA’s push for a harmonized regional AI strategy across 21 member states, of which Egypt is one — meaning Cairo’s AI trajectory is being shaped simultaneously by national strategy, bilateral World Bank engagement and regional harmonization pressures.
