The emergence of e‐commerce in a developing nation

Abstract

The information and communication technology evolution is affecting many nations around the world and forcing changes to business and socio-economic development plans, and reflecting major implications on the realization of the concept of globalization. Egypt, as a developing country with an economy in transition, started to invest in building its communication and information technology infrastructure since 1985 as a vital tool for development. This paper describes the emergence of e-commerce in Egypt with a focus on the challenges faced that relate to a number of social, technological, financial and legal issues, and the road map formulated in collaboration between the government and the private sector to diffuse e-commerce in Egypt.

Information technology in Chile: How perceptions and use are related to age, gender, and social class

“…As we explain in the last section of this paper, a more widespread and efficient use of Internet and IT might enhance the standard of living of the poorer Chilean population and increase their opportunities to obtain better jobs with more lucrative salaries. Similar studies conducted in developing countries support our viewpoint [1,2]. This study is mainly normative.…”

Determinants of corporate internet reporting: evidence from Egypt

“…We believe that internet reporting is one of the most important sources of such information and potentially complements other published accounting in Egypt. Finally, there is evidence that the number of internet users in Egypt is dramatically increased (Kamel and Hussein, 2002) with 75 per cent of users from the business community (Mintz, 1998). This evidence suggests that there is increasing need/trend in Egypt by different stakeholders to seek information through the internet.…”

Information and Communications Technology for Development

“…The Internet was fi rst introduced to Egypt in 1993 by the Egyptian Universities Network of the Supreme Council of Egyptian Universities, originally serving two thousand users (Kamel and Hussein 2002). In 1994, in an effort to diffuse Internet usage among the broader society, the Cabinet of Egypt's Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) in collaboration with the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center (RITSEC) began providing free Internet access on a trial basis to public and private organizations.…”

“…Such limited growth was perceived as hindering the development of the knowledge society. Therefore, in January 2002, MCIT launched a new initiative providing free nationwide Internet access to all citizens (Kamel and Abdel Ghaffar 2003). This has contributed to rapidly growing use, with the percentage of the population online rising from 5.5% (3.9 million users) in 2004 to 15.6% (11.4 million users) in 2008, still rising at a rate of 16.7% annually (MCIT 2008a, 1).…”