Grid Telecom signs MoC with Telecom Egypt
Greek energy infrastructure company Grid Telecom and Telecom Egypt signed a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) for a submarine telecommunications interconnection between Greece and Egypt, at an event held in Athens on Wednesday.
Grid Telecom is a subsidiary of Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE). The event was held at ADMIE’s headquarters and the signatories were ADMIE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Manos Manousakis and Telecom Egypt Managing Director and CEO Adel Hamed. It was attended by Digital Governance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, and the charge d’affaires of the Egyptian Embassy in Greece, Mohamed Elghazawy.
This agreement is “symbolic because it deepens the relationship between the two countries, which is of particular geostrategic importance,” noted Pierrakakis. He added that in terms of Greece’s telecommunications system, the MoC “increases the country’s international connectivity and the volume capacity of its data.” It also “contributes toward our reaching an even more powerful digital transformation of both the telecommunications system per se, as well as the country and its economy.”
Wednesday’s signing follows the respective agreement for the electrical interconnection between Egypt and Greece in October 2021, CEO Manousakis pointed out, being “ADMIE’s contribution to Greece’s effort to become a hub for the transmission of electricity and data in the Eastern Mediterranean.”
In his comments, Minister Talaat said he welcomes the MoC and the growing bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED). He also underlined that “this fresh cooperation between two strategic players in the region aims not only to improve their interconnection, but to also meet the growing current and future needs of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.”
On the sidelines, bilateral talks were also held between the two countries’ ministers and high-ranking government officials on several issues including artificial intelligence, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Telecom Egypt is the Arab country’s first integrated telecommunications company, and one of the region’s largest submarine cable systems operators.
