Stream Global Services, a provider of customer care and business process outsourcing (BPO) services for Fortune 1000 companies, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Egyptian Information Technology Development Agency (ITIDA) to employ and train more than 1000 Egyptian employees in its Cairo facility over the next three years. ITIDA, as part of its initiative to empower, grow and develop Egypt’s information and communications technology industry, will subsidize certain employee training costs for Stream.

Stream’s Chairman and CEO, Scott Murray, signed the agreement with Hazem Youssef Abdelazim, CEO, ITIDA, during the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt event, taking place in Washington, DC. The agreement was witnessed by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, His Excellency, Tarek Kamel.

"Following the recent opening of our 1000-seat Cairo solutions center, we are seeing tremendous opportunity to offer a highly skilled, technical workforce to support our growing global client base. We believe that Egypt is fast becoming the next ’go-to’ location for off-shore services for both our North American and our European global accounts," said Murray. "We are thrilled to be working with the ITIDA to ensure that we quickly and effectively ramp up training and support efforts in Cairo for these clients."

Egypt is ranked sixth in the 2008 A.T. Kearney Global Services Locations Index, an improvement of seven ranks from 2007. And, according to A.T. Kearney, Egypt now ranks number one in the EMEA region as an offshoring location. Stream’s Cairo center was launched in May 2009 to address this growing global demand for skilled technical workforce in an offshore support environment. The site is already serving several clients across multiple languages.

Commenting on the agreement, ITIDA CEO, Hazem Y. Abdelazim said, "We are excited to be working alongside a company of Stream’s caliber to further develop the technology talent base of Egypt. We look forward to working together over the coming years to ensure Stream’s clients reap the benefits of Egypt’s advanced technology infrastructure and highly educated workforce."