The Cairo ICT 2008 Trade Fair and Forum, a premier event in the region for professionals for networking, will kick off its 12th edition on February 24.

The annual four-day event to be held at the Cairo International Conference Center has received overwhelming response from the participants, said an organiser.

'About 90 per cent of the total exhibition space for this year has been filled up, with expectations to finish sales very shortly,' said Ossama Kamal, managing director of TradeFairs International, the organiser of Cairo ICT. 

The delegations from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are participating in the exhibition this year in an initiative to boost co-operation between the ICT community in those countries and Egypt, he added.

The event is being held under the auspices of Dr. Tarek Kamel, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, with the support of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and  large multinational and local sponsors lead by Telecom Egypt.  

“Multinational exhibitors recognise the importance of attending Cairo ICT, which explains the growth in this sector each year,” said Kamal.

The forum speaker sessions, organised as part of event, will continue this year to tackle major issues in the Egyptian ICT market.

“The conference sessions will discuss some of the most pressing technology issues worldwide including technical concepts that have become a priority for all business sectors,” Kamal added.

Several new sectors will debut this year including a big representation of the banking and financial services sector as well as real estate services and investment.

Different government bodies will take part in addition to a huge representation of retailers from several Egyptian governorates.

“Cairo ICT 2008 will defiantly exceed the rates of activities and actions reached in the 11 past rounds,” Kamal added.-TradeArabia News Service