Egypt: Disputes between Ministries of Telecommunications and Culture on internet cafes are settled
Ministry of Telecommunications is entitled to license internet cafes
The arbitrary committee formed by arbitrators from Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Telecommunications entitled the Ministry of Telecommunications to supervise, censor, and control internet cafes in Egypt. In addition, the ministry will be responsible for licensing new internet cafes and, subsequently, allowing its specialized representatives to control these cafes in respect with adherence to legal measures.
Public Authority for Information Technology Development had promised not to allow confusion between the specializations of its Software Intellectual Property Department and the similar departments of Ministry of Culture. That is in order to avoid any possible clashes which may result into changing or re-phrasing regulations. The Chairman of the Authority clarified that Software Intellectual Property Department is more capable of understanding the nature of technological industries and applying the appropriate methods to protect them legally.
Authority Chairman; Engineer Mohamed Omran emphasized that new suppositional creativity centers will be established and supervised by the Authority. These centers will be run by high professional Egyptian and international experts of telecommunications and software and hardware industries from inside and outside Egypt.
Omran stated that electronic signature service will be available to the public by the beginning of 2007 for facilitating commercial and legal transactions.
