The Egyptian government and the European Commission to Egypt have introduced the Euro-Mediterranean Information Society (EUMEDIS) initiative, a new regional program funded by the European Commission, with an endeavor to cooperate for the development of the global information society.
EUMEDIS is the largest project undertaken by the European Commission which aims at reducing the region's technological gap through the implementation of various information technology-related projects among the EU member states and the twelve Mediterranean countries, including Egypt.
EUMEDIS is a part of the framework of regional activities for which the European Commission, under the MEDA II Program (2000-2006), has allocated around 14 percent of the total budget, which amounts to €5.35 billion ($5.2 million).
Selecting from among 175 proposals, the European Commission has contracted 16 projects under the EUMEDIS initiative. The selected projects will focus on the following five sectors: cultural heritage and tourism, education, electronic commerce, health care, and research for industry development. The total budget allocated to the initiative is €65 million ($64 million). The projects' implementation will take two to three years and will involve all EuroMed Partners.
Significantly, 14 out of the 16 contracted projects have Egyptian partners. Egypt is ranked second in level of participation in projects among all 27 Euromed partners. Among these 14 projects is the highly merited Strabon project, which will create a website documenting the cultural heritage in the different countries of the Mediterranean. MCIT's National Center for Documentation of Cultural & Natural Heritage is the Egyptian partner in Strabon.
MCIT has been supporting the Egyptian participation in the Program, and is hosting an EUMEDIS Focal Point in Egypt located at the Information Society Development Office (ISDO). ISDO has conducted several information campaigns to raise awareness of EUMEDIS and its activities while encouraging participants to join in regional initiatives. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
