ICT ministry, China's iFlytek sign deal on language processing

CAIRO - 22July 2020: Minister of Information and Communications Technology Amr Talaat on Tuesday attended via video-conference the signing of a deal between the Applied Innovation Center (AIC) and the Chinese information technology company iFlytek.

Under the deal, both sides will cooperate in implementing a research and development project in the domains of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine translation using the artificial intelligence technology.

The three-year long deal aims to achieve an Egyptian-Chinese cooperation through taping the information technology in order to provide solutions capable of processing the Egyptian Arabic dialect and immediately translate it into Chinese dialects, and vice versa.

The project shall contribute to creating 80 job opportunities for young people specialized in information technology, linguistics and translation.

The agreement will contribute to the exchange of science and knowledge between Egypt and China, said minister Talaat, adding that it also seeks to mix both civilizations through cooperation in the communications and information technology industry and by taking into account the understanding of living languages which is an important step towards building a digital Egypt.

The project is envisaged to have an economic and social impact on all speakers of these languages, Talaat said, noting that it comes as part of the government's strategy to rebuild Egypt based on the foundations of civilization and science.

The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian Ambassador to China Mohammed El Badry as well as Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang.

Ambassador El Badry pointed out to the comprehensive strategic partnership between Egypt and China and the distinguished economic relations, with several Chinese companies operating in Egypt with an outstanding performance.

He added that the deal will play a pivotal role in giving impetus for the Egyptian-Chinese relations and fostering communication between the Egyptian and Chinese people. 

The Chinese ambassador, for his part, said that cooperation in the artificial intelligence field will have future implications in serving common interests. This will occur in addition to providing a quarter of the world's population who speak Arabic and Chinese with an important bridge for communication.