South Korea Ambassador to Cairo Hong Jin-Wook, along with Minister of Telecommunications, Dr. Amr Talaat, and Minister of Education, Dr. Tarek Shawki visited the Samsung Electronics factory in Beni Suef on Monday.
During the visit, they toured the manufacturing facility of the Educational tablet PC and exchanged views on how to continue on the momentum of bilateral economic cooperation, which has been growing further through the official visit of H.E. Moon Jae-in, the President of the Republic of Korea, this year from the 19th to the 21st of January.
Telecommunications Minister, Amr Talaat, was also the Chief of the Mission of Honour, accompanying President Moon during his visit and even attended the Korean-Egyptian Business Roundtable on the 20th of January as the head of Telecommunication Ministry-related industries, which included the Educational Tablet as part of its portfolio.
H.E. Ambassador Hong expects bilateral economic cooperation to be elevated through the historical visit of the first Korean President to visit Egypt in 16 years with the last visit being in 2006. Ambassador Hong stressed that both leaders agreed on enlarging the scope of bilateral economic cooperation within the future cooperation portfolio which also includes ICT, renewable energy, desalination, and electric cars manufacture, which are fields beyond the past traditional trade and investment-centric cooperation.
In this regard, His Excellency stressed that today’s visit to the Samsung Electronics factory by the two Ministers is quite meaningful as it is the first follow-up measure of the Korean Presidential visit to Egypt. Ambassador Hong Jin-Wook also stressed that both countries should continue to follow up on the deliverables of the President’s visit.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tarek Shawki, has commended the significance of this project as a milestone for digital equality in Egypt, providing access to sophisticated educational opportunities especially to those in more rural areas and smaller villages. The Minister has also stated that the Ministry of Education is currently studying the incorporation of middle school students into the project as well.
Telecommunications Minister, Dr. Amr Talaat, has expressed his wishes to expand the scope of the Tablet PC project through maximizing production. The surplus of tablets would be incorporated into higher education and would also serve to boost Egypt’s electronic exports.
According to Samsung Electronics, based on the contract concluded in March 2021 between Samsung Electronics and the Ministry of Education, the yearly production of 0.7 million tablet PCs, totaling 4.2 million Tablet PCs will be provided to the Egyptian government during the period from 2021- 2026. These tablet PCs will be provided to Egyptian high school students for free to aid in their education and studies.
Starting this year, a new tablet PC manufacturing facility will be established within the existing TV manufacturing factory. Currently, around 95% of the construction of the tablet PC manufacturing facility is done, mass production is expected to commence soon.
It is worth mentioning that the Tablet PC manufacturing factory will be the first of its kind in Africa and the Middle East. These “Made in Egypt” tablets are aimed to be exported to other countries under the cooperation between Korea and Egypt making it a model project of trilateral cooperation between Korea, Egypt, and importing countries.
