22 March, 2017

An Industry First: Teradata Debuts Open Source Kylo™ to Quickly Build, Manage Data Pipelines



Companies will benefit from simple, economical, accelerated data lake development; can focus talent on delivering high-impact business outcomes

Dubai, UAE – March 22, 2017 – Teradata (NYSE: TDC), a leading analytics solutions company,  announced a new and important contribution to the open source community that will deliver unprecedented efficiencies for companies creating data lakes. Teradata is introducing Kylo™, a data lake management software platform built using the latest open source capabilities such as Apache® Hadoop®, Apache Spark™ and Apache NiFi™. Kylo is a Teradata sponsored, open-source project that is offered under the Apache 2.0 license. Kylo evolved from code harvested from proven data lake engagements led by Think Big Analytics, a Teradata company, which will provide services and support for Kylo™.

With substantive experience creating business value from data lakes, Teradata is contributing Kylo™ to help organizations address the most common challenges they face in data lake implementation efforts. These include the central problem that data lakes simply take too long to build, and in the average 6-12 month build cycle, users find that use cases can become out of date and less relevant to quickly evolving businesses. Second, despite the lower cost of software, engineering costs quickly mount. Finally, a data lake, once created, may fail to attract users who find it difficult to explore, and so little value is realized.

Derived and developed from data lake deployments across industries, Kylo can easily help resolve these challenges, because it integrates and simplifies pipeline development and common data management tasks, resulting in faster time to value, greater user adoption and developer productivity. With Kylo, no coding is required, and its intuitive user interface for self-service data ingest and wrangling helps accelerate the development process. Kylo also leverages reusable templates to increase productivity.

“Many organizations find that implementing big data solutions on the Hadoop stack is a complex endeavor. Big data technologies are heavily oriented to software engineering, developers and system administrators,” said Nik Rouda, senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). “Our research found 28 percent of organizations still struggle to staff teams with enough BI and analytics talent, much less big data and open source solution expertise. 77 percent of those surveyed say new big data initiatives will take between seven months and three years to show significant business value. It doesn’t have to be that way. I commend Teradata for open sourcing Kylo™ – an innovative and meaningful contribution.”

Encapsulating extensive experience from over 150 data lake engagements, Kylo™ helps organizations address the most common challenges they face in data lake implementation efforts, including:
- Skill shortage for experienced software engineers and administrators.
- Learning and implementing best practices around data lake governance.
- Driving data lake adoption beyond engineers.

When these challenges are overcome, high impact business outcomes are realized. In fact, Teradata has already helped many organizations save money and create new revenue streams from data lakes:
  • A semiconductor manufacturer increased the yield quality of wafers; reducing waste, saving time, boosting output and thus increasing value to the business.
  • An industrial equipment manufacturer enabled new service models, service-level agreements, intervention processes, and, notably, new revenue streams.
  • A world-renowned research hospital reduced patient prep times, allowing doctors to treat more patients.

“Kylo is an exciting first in open source data lake management, and perfectly represents Teradata’s vision around big data, analytics, and open source software,” said Oliver Ratzesberger, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Teradata. “Teradata has a rich history in the development of many open source projects, including Presto, and Covalent. We know how commercial and open source should work together. So we engineer the best of both worlds, and we pioneer new approaches to open source software as part of our customer-choice strategy, improving the commercial and open source landscape for everyone.”

Teradata’s vision for the blend of commercial and open source is recognized by customers, who continue to use Teradata to unleash their potential.  

“At Discover® Financial Services, we are focused on leveraging leading-edge technology that helps us quickly bring products to market while providing exceptional customer service. Kylo™ has a unique framework that has the potential to accelerate development and value on new data sources that leverage Apache NiFi,” said Ka Tang, Director, Enterprise Data Architecture, Discover. “Kylo™ may provide an opportunity to leverage open source innovations while allowing the opportunity to give back to the open source community.”

"Open source software has an appeal to users seeking independence, cooperative learning, experimentation, and flexibility for customized deployments,” said Rick Farnell, President of Think Big, a Teradata company. “Our contribution is all about helping companies build a scalable data lake foundation that can continuously evolve with their business, technology data and analytical goals.  We are removing impediments to use data to solve complex business problems and encouraging analytical users to contribute to the growing Kylo™ community.  Going forward, our primary focus as a company is to help our customers create business value through analytics, rather than commodity capabilities.  Kylo, along with our Teradata Everywhere approach to software and services, is a great example of our innovative strategy for the future."

To this point, a major telecommunications company implemented Kylo™ after a large team of 30 data engineers spent months hand-coding data ingestion pipelines. Using Kylo, one single individual was able to ingest, cleanse, profile, and validate the same data in less than a week. Kylo™ not only improved data process efficiencies, it allowed those additional engineers to focus on multiple major business priorities.

Kylo software, documentation and tutorials are available now, via the Kylo™ project website: www.kylo.io - or the GitHub web site:  -- https://github.com/Teradata/kylo.
On request, Think Big offers these optional services, if required:
  • Kylo™ support
  • Kylo™ implementation services
  • Kylo™ training
  • Kylo™ managed services
“Kylo provides tooling on top of Apache NiFi to make it faster and easier to get data into your data lake,” said Scott Gnau, Chief Technology Officer, Hortonworks. “Hortonworks is pleased to announce Kylo’s certification with Hortonworks DataFlow and our expanded joint support relationship for NiFi.”  

Teradata will play a leadership role in the governance, stewardship and community-building around open-source Kylo™.

Relevant Links

Alpha Publishing brings “The Power of Stories” to TESOL Arabia with Cheryl Palin


March 22nd 2017, Dubai – Leading MENA education and learning publisher Alpha Publishing partnered with renowned English Language Teaching (ELT) author, Cheryl Palin at this year’s TESOL Arabia to deliver a full house workshop on “The Power of Stories”. Cheryl, who traveled from the UK to join Alpha Publishing specifically for TESOL Arabia, presented her material on day two of the three-day conference which took place from March 9th – 11th at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, DIFC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“The Power of Stories” focused on storytelling as a powerful means of learning and information transfer, with practical advice on how storytelling strategies can be applied in today’s ELT classrooms. One of the key messages of the workshop was how storytelling is a strong vehicle for presenting language in its natural form and correct context. The presentation further explored the many different opportunities for children to learn through storytelling and  the strong social aspect, which fosters a positive attitude to learning English.
Speaking about her presentation, Cheryl said “I feel very passionate about stories because they provide so many opportunities in the classroom for learning. Stories are obviously an excellent vehicle for language learning. They enable us to present and practise natural language in a meaningful context. However, they have so much more to offer in terms of meeting children’s wider educational needs. Through stories, children can reflect on values and develop emotional intelligence. Traditional stories, in particular, teach children about the target culture and can serve as a springboard for further cross-curricular learning. And story-based activities are also a great way to help children develop the 21stcentury learning skills: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.”
Cheryl has more than 25 years of experience in the field of English Language Teaching and is the author of various well-known Primary titles, including an innovative blended learning ELT publication for the Spanish market, published under her pen name, Suzanne Torres. Given her rich experience in the field, conference attendees were keen to seek her advice on how best to use stories in a classroom situation.
“Where possible I would advise teachers to tell stories, rather than simply reading them aloud,” Cheryl commented. “If a teacher knows a story well enough not to need to read the text, eye contact can be maintained with the students, making the experience more engaging and social. Young children need lots of clues to help them understand a story in English. We can use visual aids, such as story cards, of course. But it’s also important to use our hands, our voice and our body language to tell the story. It’s a good idea to practise telling a story for small children beforehand, so that you can think about using expression to convey meaning, using different voices to differentiate characters, and also where to pause for dramatic effect, to make the story exciting and maintain the children’s interest.  We need to make our story telling as enjoyable as possible, because if children are motivated by stories in English, they will develop a positive attitude towards books and literacy, as well as towards their English classes in general.”
Alpha Publishing’s “Pandy and Friends” – an ELT publication targeted towards Pre-Primary students - builds on storytelling in its approach to promoting effective learning by encouraging teachers to “act out” the story rather than simply telling the story to their students. Alpha Publishing ELT Editor Sam Grey commented, “Storytelling is crucial for children of this age, and stories are a really big part of Pandy and Friends. Students follow the adventures of Pandy and his friends throughout the levels and get to know the characters. We provide teachers with lots of resources such as story cards, stickers, and the Pandy puppet so that they can tell the stories in an engaging way and bring Pandy to life. Along with stories, children love songs and singing - Pandy and Friends comes with songs in every unit and each song has actions for the children to act out thus promoting learning through total physical response.”
Alpha Publishing Managing Director Eyad Darawsheh commented, “We were delighted to have Cheryl attend and partner with Alpha Publishing at TESOL Arabia 2017. As the principal ELT conference for teachers and educators in the Middle East, TESOL Arabia is the ideal platform for a truly world-class expert such as Cheryl to share her expansive knowledge on the teaching and application of effective strategies.
In addition to Pandy and Friends, Alpha Publishing’s range of ELT publications being promoted at TESOL included primary school–focused publications Super English and Go For English, plus middle school title English Leader and Target English, which is orientated towards the upper / adult age group. All Alpha Publishing titles are produced within the MENA region and the content is presented with a strong emphasis on local and cultural sensitivity.
Darawsheh added, “Alpha Publishing’s approach to helping teachers and educators is very similar to that of Cheryl’s. We are both passionate about maximizing the effectiveness of ELT in today’s classroom. We share the vision of producing top-quality materials with exceptional content based on world-class standards. Alpha Publishing places great importance on the skill of information transfer – be it via the medium of storytelling or by cultural attention-to-detail within our publications. It is vital for students that they are presented with information in a way which gives them the best opportunity to learn and understand. Alpha Publishing’s philosophy of producing materials ‘in the region, for the region’ gives our local teachers an exceptional advantage in achieving positive student outcomes.”

JLL to participate in Cityscape Conference, Egypt

Prominent spokespeople to share insights and perspectives on the real estate market in Egypt


Dubai, UAE – March 21, 2017: JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, will be participating in Egypt’s annual Cityscape conference that will be held on March 29th & 30th at the Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski.
On day 2, Craig Plumb, Head of Research, MENA, JLL, will explore the impact of technology, data and digital disruption on workspaces and real estate investment strategies.

In conjunction with the conference, JLL will release their Cairo Real Estate Market Overview for Q1 2017. This report will analyse the effects of the Egyptian pound’s recent stability on the residential, office, hotels and retail sectors in the real estate market of Egypt.

جيه إل إل تشارك في مؤتمر سيتي سكيب مصر
أبرز المتحدثين يتبادلون الرؤى ووجهات النظر بشأن السوق العقارية في مصر

دبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة - 21 مارس 2017: ستشارك شركة جيه إل إل، شركة الاستثمارات والاستشارات العقارية الرائدة في العالم، في مؤتمر سيتي سكيب السنوي بمصر الذي سيُعقد في الفترة بين 29 و30 مارس في فندق رويال مكسيم بالاس كمبنسكي.
وسيستعرض كريج بلامب، رئيس قسم الأبحاث بشركة جيه إل إل الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، في اليوم الثاني من المؤتمر أثر التغيرات الرقمية والتكنولوجيا والبيانات على أماكن العمل واستراتيجيات الاستثمار العقاري.

وستصدر جيه إل إل، بالتزامن مع انعقاد المؤتمر، تقريرها الربع سنوي بعنوان "نظرة عامة على السوق العقارية بالقاهرة للربع الأول من عام 2017". وسوف يشمل هذا التقرير تحليلاً لآثار استقرار الجنيه المصري في الآونة الأخيرة على القطاع السكني وقطاعات المكاتب الإدارية والفنادق والتجزئة في السوق العقارية بمصر.

Hilton Hotels in Egypt Step Successfully into 2017


Four Hilton hotels achieve sought-after recognitions

Cairo, Egypt: March 21, 2017 – Ramses Hilton, Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa, Hilton Hurghada Resort and Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort started 2017 on a positive note. The four hotels were recognized by different entities for their remarkable performance and offerings. The external and internal recognitions were received by TripAdvisor, Expedia, scoopempire.com, toptencairo.com and Hilton.

“I would like to sincerely congratulate the four hotels on these well-deserved awards,” said Christian Muhr, vice president of operations, Egypt & Levant, Hilton. “Hilton’s mission is to be the most hospitable company in the world – by creating heartfelt experiences for guests, meaningful opportunities for Team Members, high value for owners and a positive impact on our communities. These awards – which span a variety of categories – demonstrate our hotels’ commitment to this mission.”

The accolades earned by the four hotels were as follows:

Ramses Hilton:
  • “Most Engaged Partner Award” for 2016 from Expedia
  • “Certificate of Excellence” for 2016 from TripAdvisor
  • “Best Indian Restaurant in Cairo” for Maharaja restaurant from scoopempire.com
  • Maharaja restaurant was also named one of the top ten Indian restaurants in Cairo by toptencairo.com


Hilton Luxor Resort & Spa:
  • “Traveler’s Choice Award” for 2017 from TripAdvisor
  • The hotel was also ranked among the top hotels, not only in Egypt but across the Middle East and Africa (MEA), by TripAdvisor as follows:
    • Ranked number 4 in Egypt and 13 in MEA as one of the top 25 hotels
    • Ranked number 3 in Egypt and 6 in Mea as one of the top 25 hotels for service
    • Ranked number 3 in Egypt and 10 in Mea as one of the top 25 luxury hotels

Hilton Hurghada Resort:
  • “The Bikes are Back” winner for 2016: This award is designed by Hilton to reward the hotel that undertakes the best environmental and sustainability practices within its day-to-day operations. Hilton Hurghada Resort won the award due to its strong performance across energy, water and waste management throughout the year.
  • Make it Right- Highest SALT (Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking) winner of 2016: This annual recognition celebrates the outstanding accomplishments by Hilton hotels and individuals around the world. As an award recipient, Hilton Hurghada Resort has demonstrated the highest level of quality and service across the brand and achieved the highest guest satisfaction scores.

Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort:

  • “Driving Value2 Campaign” 2016 winner for Egypt and Levant: This is a global Hilton campaign aimed at rewarding hotels that succeed in effectively reducing their water and energy consumption.
فنادق هيلتون في مصر تبدأ عام 2017 بتحقيق نجاحات عالمية
أربعة من فنادق هيلتون تحصد جوائز رفيعة في عالم الضيافة

القاهرة، مصر: 21 مارس، 2017- بدأت فنادق هيلتون رمسيس ،ومنتجع وسبا هيلتون الأقصر  ، ومنتجع هيلتون الغردقة ، ومنتجع هيلتون شرم ووترفولز عام 2017 بصورة مميزة، بعد حصلوهم على جوائز رفيعة المستوى من عدة جهات مختلفة تقديراً لأدائهم وخدماتهم المميزة. تضمنت الجهات المانحة للتكريم كل من موقع TripAdvisor، وموقع Expedia، وموقع scoopempire.com، وموقع toptencairo.com، وشركة هيلتون نفسها.

وتعليقاً على ذلك يقول السيد/ كريستيان مور- نائب الرئيس للعمليات في مصر ومنطقة الشام بشركة هيلتون: "أتوجه بخالص التهاني للفنادق الأربعة على تلك الجوائز التي استحقوها بكل جدارة، حيث تتمثل مهمتنا الرئيسية في أن نصبح أفضل شركة في مجال الضيافة على مستوى العالم، عن طريق منح نزلائنا تجربة ضيافة استثنائية وخدمات مميزة بكل إخلاص وتفان، إلى جانب منح فريق العاملين فرص حقيقية للتقدم والنمو، وتحقيق تأثير إيجابي واضح في المجتمعات التي نعمل بها. وتأتي هذه الجوائز التي تشمل فئات متنوعة لتبرهن على التزامنا بتحقيق كل ذلك."

وتتضمن الجوائز التي حصل عليها الفنادق الأربعة ما يلي:

فندق هيلتون رمسيس:
  • جائزة "الشريك الفندقي الأكثر تفاعلاً مع العميل" لعام 2016- من موقع Expedia
  • "شهادة التميز" لعام 2016 من موقع TripAdvisor
  • جائزة "أفضل مطعم هندي في القاهرة" حصدها مطعم Maharaja من موقع scoopempire.com
  • كما جاء مطعم Maharaja ضمن أفضل 10 مطاعم هندية في القاهرة في القائمة التي أعدها موقع toptencairo.com


منتجع وسبا هيلتون الأقصر:
  • جائزة "الفندق الأكثر اختياراً للمسافرين" لعام 2017 من موقع TripAdvisor
  • كما جاء الفندق ضمن قائمة أفضل الفنادق ليس فقط في مصر بل على مستوى الشرق الأوسط ضمن القائمة التي أعدها موقع TripAdvisor على النحو التالي:
    • جاء الفندق في المركز الرابع في مصر والمركز الـ13 في منطقة الشرق الأوسط ضمن قائمة أفضل 25 فندقا.
    • جاء الفندق في المركز الثالث في مصر والمركز السادس في منطقة الشرق الأوسط ضمن قائمة أفضل 25 فندقاً في مستوى الخدمة.
    • جاء الفندق في المركز الثالث في مصر والعاشر في منطقة الشرق الأوسط ضمن قائمة أكثر الفنادق فخامة.

منتجع هيلتون الغردقة:
  • حصل المنتجع على جائزة “The Bikes are Back” لعام 2016: وهي جائزة أطلقتها شركة هيلتون لتكريم الفندق الذي يلتزم بكافة الممارسات البيئة والاستدامة خلال عمليات التشغيل اليومية. لذلك حصل منتجع هيلتون الغردقة على هذه الجائزة نظراً لأدائه القوي والمميز فيما يخص استخدامات الطاقة، والمياه، وإدارة المخلفات خلال العام.
  • Make it Right - الفندق الفائز بمؤشر الرضاء وتقييم ولاء العملاء لعام 2016: يُمنح هذا التقدير السنوي للفنادق والأشخاص الأكثر انجازاً ضمن فنادق هيلتون على مستوى العالم. وقد حصل منتجع هيلتون الغردقة على هذا التقدير لعام 2016، نظراً لتميزه في تحقيق أعلى مستويات الجودة للخدمات التي يقدمها ضمن الفنادق التابعة لعلامة هيلتون التجارية، وهو ما نتج عنه تحقيق أعلى مستوى لرضاء العملاء.  

Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Visits Mastercard Headquarters in New York


Mastercard Advanced Solutions of Electronic Payments Help Egypt Achieve Financial Inclusion and Shift to Cashless Society    


Cairo, Egypt: 21st March, 2017- Eng. Yasser El Kady, Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology (CIT), recently visited the headquarters of Mastercard, the leading technology company in the global payment industry, in New York, USA. The Minister was accompanied by a high-ranking business delegation and was welcomed by Mastercard's top executives, Mrs. Martina Hund-Mejean, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Khalid Elgibali, Division President for Middle East and North Africa, and Mr. Magdy Hassan, General Manager Egypt and North Africa.

The meeting provided an opportunity for both sides to discuss developments within the payments industry, share views and exchange expertise, while the Mastercard team demonstrated best practices and leading global programs. They also discussed means to benefit from Mastercard’s electronic payment advanced technologies to further drive financial inclusion in the country through the development of a unified payment solution such as the multi applications card for citizens as well as leveraging on Mastercard’s experience and innovation labs to provide the necessary support and training for the incubation of FinTech startups.

"We are honored to meet Eng. Yasser El Kady and his esteemed delegation at our headquarters today," said Mr. Khalid Elgibali, the Division President for Middle East and North Africa, Mastercard.  "Mastercard has an impressive track record in Egypt and fruitful cooperation with the Egyptian government. We share the same vision to promote financial inclusion and to welcome more unbanked Egyptians into formal economy. The Egyptian market has tremendous IT growth potential. It also has what it takes to advance technological services, including electronic payments. I believe in Egypt's capabilities to achieve financial inclusion as we move toward more sustainable economic development for a better Egypt."                 

It is worth mentioning that Mastercard and the Egyptian government have worked together on several projects to encourage the use of electronic payments instead of cash such as: the establishment of the first interoperable mobile ecosystem; the electronic payroll program for the Egyptian Government; the launch of the electronic taxes and customs collection system; and last year, Mastercard signed a memorandum of understanding with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) to develop the necessary infrastructure for the advancement and technological enablement of all technology parks across Egypt.

وزير الاتصالات وتكنولوجيا المعلومات يزور المقر الرئيسي لشركة ماستركارد في نيويورك
حلول ماستركارد المتطورة للمدفوعات الإلكترونية تساعد الحكومة المصرية على تحقيق الشمول المالي والتحول للمجتمع اللانقدي  

القاهرة في 21 مارس 2017 - قام المهندس/ ياسر القاضي، وزير الاتصالات وتكنولوجيا المعلومات ، بزيارة عمل للمقر الرئيسي لشركة ماستركارد، الشركة العالمية الرائدة في  تكنولوجيا حلول الدفع، بمدينة نيويورك في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.  رافق الوزير خلال زيارته وفد رفيع المستوى، وكان في استقبالهم من شركة ماستركارد السيدة/ مارتينا       هند مجيان، رئيس القطاع المالي، والسيد/ خالد الجبالي، رئيس منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا والسيد مجدي حسن، المدير الإقليمي لمصر وشمال أفريقيا.

أتاحت الزيارة للجانبين فرصة لمناقشة أحدث التطورات في قطاع المدفوعات ونقل وتبادل الخبرات وعرض أفضل التجارب في تلك الصناعة الهامة. في الوقت نفسه استعرض المسئولون في ماستركارد أفضل الممارسات والبرامج التي تنفذها الشركة، كما تطرقت الزيارة لمناقشة أوجه التعاون لتعزيز الاستفادة من خبرة ماستركارد العالمية في مجال المدفوعات الرقمية  لتحقيق الشمول المالي في مصر، من خلال تصميم حلول و برامج موحدة لبطاقات المدفوعات الالكترونية متعددة الاستخدام للمواطنين، وكذلك الاستفادة من مراكز الابتكار والابداع  في صناعة المدفوعات الرقمية بماستركارد لتوفير الدعم والتدريب اللازم لحاضنات الشركات التكنلوجية الناشئة في مجال التكنولوجيا المالية.      

يضيف السيد/ خالد الجبالي، رئيس منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا في ماستركارد: "لقد شرفنا اليوم باستقبال المهندس/ ياسر القاضي، وزير الاتصالات وتكنولوجيا المعلومات والوفد الموافق له في مقرنا الرئيسي بمدينة نيويورك. إنّ ماستركارد تتمتع بسجل حافل من التعاون المثمر والبنّاء مع الحكومة المصرية. و إنني أؤمن أن رؤية ماستركارد تتطابق مع رؤية الحكومة المصرية فيما يخص تحقيق الشمول المالي وضم المزيد من المواطنين للاقتصاد الرسمي. ولهذا تقوم ماستركارد بتنفيذ عدد من البرامج والمبادرات والمشروعات الطموحة في السوق المصري بمشاركة الحكومة، انطلاقاً من هذه الرؤية المشتركة لتحقيق المزيد من التنمية التكنولوجية والشمول المالي بمعناه الفعلي. وفي هذا الإطار، أود التأكيد على أن السوق المصري يتمتع بإمكانيات نمو هائلة في المجال التكنولوجي، كما أنه يمتلك بنية تحتية تكنولوجية قوية يمكن الاعتماد عليها في تطوير كافة الخدمات التكنولوجية ومن بينها خدمات المدفوعات التي تعتمد على وسائل الاتصالات الحديثة مثل المدفوعات عن طريق الإنترنت والهواتف المحمولة إلى جانب التحول الرقمي والمدفوعات الإلكترونية في مكاتب البريد التي تنتشر في كل مدن وقرى البلاد. إنني أثق في قدرة مصر على تحقيق الشمول المالي خلال زمن قياسي، نظراً لرغبة الجادة في الاستفادة من مزايا الشمول المالي ودمج فئات جديدة من أبناء الشعب المصري ضمن المنظومة المالية والمصرفية الرسمية، وهو ما يساهم في تحقيق التنمية الاقتصادية المستدامة."    

تجدر الإشارة أنّ ماستركارد تعاونت مع الحكومة المصرية في تنفيذ عدد من المشروعات الهادفة لتشجيع الاعتماد على المدفوعات الالكترونية بدلاً من المعاملات النقدية. ومن هذه البرامج:  تأسيس وإطلاق منصة ماستركارد المفتوحة للدفع عبر الهواتف المحمولة، وبرنامج سداد المرتبات إلكترونياً لموظفي الحكومة، وبرنامج ماستركارد لخدمات تحصيل الضرائب والجمارك إلكترونياً للتسهيل على المواطنين. من ناحية أخرى، وقّعت ماستركارد أواخر العام الماضي مذكرة تفاهم مع هيئة تنمية صناعة تكنولوجيا المعلومات (ايتيدا) لإقامة مناطق تكنولوجية لا نقدية في مصر ووضع الأساليب التكنولوجية التي تضمن تطوير تقنيات الدفع في كل المناطق التكنولوجية في أنحاء البلاد.
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