Cairo, Egypt – 25 June 2019:  IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced  the expansion of its operations in the Middle East and Africa with the opening of an Innovation and Industry Client Center and a Marketing Services Center in Cairo. Supporting Egypt’s national agenda, the centers aim to help fast track Egypt’s digital transformation for both public and private organizations through advanced technologies including AI, digital, security, blockchain and hybrid cloud.

IBM has selected Egypt as the location for its two strategic centers because of the country’s unique advantage as an innovation hub in the region with access to highly skilled talent. The centers will foster innovation by providing an enhanced customer experience, connecting clients with high level technical expertise.

“For almost a century, IBM has  played an essential role in building strong partnerships to accelerate digital transformation and create sustained societal impact across the Middle East and Africa,” said Takreem El Tohamy, General Manager IBM Middle East and Africa. “We've been working with clients and partners to develop skills, build out infrastructure and boost local research to develop unique solutions to the region’s challenges. Today we’re witnessing the further expansion of our footprint in the region.”

For decades, IBM has made major contributions to Egypt’s economy through skills development, job creation and helping organizations explore the full potential of innovative technologies. For example, IBM has supported the digitization of citizens’ services, banking the unbanked, transforming the healthcare and insurance sectors, and empowering entrepreneurship.

“Today witnesses another step forward in IBM’s commitment to Egypt. said Wael Abdoush, General Manager, IBM Egypt. “Since its establishment in Egypt in 1954, IBM has been contributing towards the Egyptian economy and working side by side with the Egyptian government  on multiple projects of national importance.”

The Cairo Innovation and Industry Client Center will help IBM clients to address business challenges in their industries by providing an enhanced customer experience and connecting them with technical skills and expertise. With focus on AI, cloud, blockchain, security, and IoT, the center will showcase live demos for IBM solutions including customer proof of concepts for key industries including Government, Telco, Banking and others. The center in Cairo is the 8th center in the Middle East and Africa network of Client Centers that consists of centers in Casablanca, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Istanbul, Lagos and Nairobi.

The IBM Marketing Services Center in Cairo, serving the Middle East and Africa, will help  ensure optimized end-to-end digital marketing campaign execution in English and Arabic, with Turkish and French planned by the end of 2019. Hiring top Egyptian talents, the objective of the center is to act as the marketing engine for IBM across the region

IBM has also moved its Egypt headquarters to the Smart Village in Cairo.