26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Egypt and India are both developing countries where ICT industry is a driver for economic growth. The World Bank outlines requirements necessary to adopt a knowledge economy which include (Rizk et al, 2015): A sound institutional and economic regime, An effective educational system, necessary to produce a qualified workforce, Telecommunications Infrastructure. These requirements, in addition to others such as governmental policies and initiatives, and available workforce would be the main pillars for evaluating ICT for economy growth approach for the following study. Egypt Ministry of Communication and Information Technology MCIT has defined seven major tracks of the national ICT plan paving the way for Egypt’s Information Society Initiative (EISI) (MCIT ICT Indicators, 2016). Tracks related to promoting ICT skills are eHealth for providing training to doctors, eLearning for a community where using ICT is a part of daily life, and eBusiness to improve workforce skills. Egypt's Internet penetration rate grew from less than one percent in 2000, to 5% in 2004, 24% in 2009,(ITU, 2011) and 54.6% in 2014 (www.internetworldstats.com). ICT’s expenditures represent 6% of GDP (Egypt ICT Indicators Portal). However, in most cases, graduates, once entering the employment market, they face the inadequacy between what they have learned academically and the tools that the professional life requires. This has been overcome by several programs by MCIT. With an average rate of growth of dose to 6 percent a year since 1980, there is some evidence that India’s growth is accelerating and can be sustained at 8 percent a year in the coming decades (Mani S., 2014). Cheap and skilled labour is an important factor attracting FDI to India seeking pools of talent at competitive costs, especially in those countries that have actively helped to create this (incl. Singapore, Malaysia, China and India). Quantitative expansion of Indian higher education hinders raising the standards of higher education (Stella A., 2015). E-commerce and internet marketing in India and has got tremendously bright future in terms of the increase in number of customers and internet users increasing interactivity among businesses and their customers (Kalia P., 2015). Indian software exports are huge – roughly US$75bn in 2014/15 (and c.US$100bn if BPO services are included) – and continuously registering double digit annual growth. IT software/services’ share of total exports remains roughly static: it was just under 14% in 2003/04 and just under 15% in 2013/14 (Time Series Data). For India, the IT sector which is currently valued at US$ 143 billion is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.3 per cent year-on-year to US$ 143 billion for 2015-16. The sector is expected to contribute 9.5 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than 45 per cent in total services export in 2015-16 (www.ibef.org). ICT goods exports and imports as percentage of total goods exports and imports in Egypt over the period from 2008 to 2014 shows that ICT exports have increased significantly in 2014 compared to past years to reach 2.75% of total goods exports in Egypt in this year (STIIB, 2016). ICT has become a main contributor to the economy of these two countries with Egypt’s ICT’s GDP contribution is expected to reach from EGP 65 billion (USD 8 billion) in FY 2014-2015 to EGP 195 billion (USD 25 billion) in FY 2020-2021, while the ICT sector in India is expected to contribute 9.5 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2015-2016.