130 exhibitors for GITEX-05

ESTIMATED 130 exhibitors and companies have been confirmed to grace the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX 2005) in Dubai.

Officials said that the event which is slated to open new opportunities for Asian, African investors would be attracting about 130 Chinese and Indian companies are exhibiting at GITEX 2005this year.

Organisers Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) announced that with less than a month to the show, the premier IT event in the Middle East has earned for itself, reputation in the last 25 years as the window to ICT growth.

The event to hold from September 25 to 29, 2005, officials said, would witness Egypt leading other African countries with a strong Egyptian contingent at the show spurred by consistent growth in IT revenues in Egypt over the last two years.

Director General of DWTC Helal Saeed Khalfan Al Marri said, “IT revenues in Egypt are projected to grow by 7.63 per cent to exceed $ 613 million in 2005 as we gear up to receive a delegation of ICT professionals from Egypt to participate at GITEX this year.”

He said, with African burgeoning market witnessing tremendous growth in the last few years and an increasingly strong presence by over Asian companies, GITEX 2005 promises to be new partnership and consolidation points for businesses in the region.

According to him, Samsung. LG, Hitachi, and Sony are leading other Asian big players particularly from China and India to spearhead the Asian participation at the occasion, with these emerging markets riding high on a robust IT demand growth rate ranging between 21 per cent and 28 per cent for the years 2003 and 2004.

“This year’s GITEX, in its 25th edition, will offer multiple opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the tremendous growth in emerging markets over the past couple of years,” said Al Marri. West Africa’s leading business technology magazine IT Edge is in partnership with the organisers of GITEX 2005 to promote the event in the West African region.

IT Edge, published in English and French by Knowledge Media International (KMI) Limited is exhibiting at Stand No C1-J, Concourse 1 near Sony, Fujitsu-Siemens and Hitachi. IT Edge magazine is published in English and French by Knowledge Media International (KMI) Limited. IT Edge editorial coverage extends over all of the West Africa’s fledgling ICT industry.

It also reports South Africa’s ICT industry because of the increasing volume of ICT businesses between West Africa and South Africa. A tech-biz news portal www.itedgenews.com, with minimum of 25, 000 hits weekly, is updated Every Monday with reports on the industry.

The magazine in only one year has won respect for its extensive editorial content as sub-regional voice fostered on a network of reporters drawn from across the entire region with Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone, Senegambia (Gambia and Senegal) featuring extensively in most print and online editions.

The Chinese government has led the centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented structure in recent years. The result has been an express growth of GDP. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2004 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US. Chinese players including ZTE and Huawei have gained prominent position in West Africa’s telecom sector in the last three years.

“Both India & China have registered high growth in recent years and have emerged as the bright spots in IT demand, with India overtaking China to achieve a 28 per cent growth rate as compared to China’s 24 per cent growth,” said Mr. Al Marri, quoting figures from leading research firm IDC.

“GITEX is ideally placed to tap into that growth.” ICT growth across the globe this year will be mostly consumer-driven, with the notable regional exception being China, where commercial sales have been strengthened by the nation’s booming economy, IDC said.

GITEX 2004 welcomed over 939 exhibitors representing more than 2,428 companies from 41 countries. The record-breaking exhibition took up all the available halls at the DWTC including a tented enclosure and attracted 116,346 visitors.

This year’s show is expected to pull a higher number of participants and already an additional 3,900 square metres of space has been created representing a 9 per cent increase in gross floor space.

“The response from exhibitors has been tremendous this year as we celebrate 25 years of serving the needs of the IT industry,” said DWTC International Project Manager, Claire Winfield.

“The success of GITEX in attracting top exhibitors from around the world is a clear reflection of the phenomenal growth of the IT market in the MENA region that is set to grow by almost 94 per cent from current levels to US$ 13.4 billion in 2008,” she said.

“With 25 years of international experience in serving the needs in every aspect of the information technology sector, GITEX is established as a ‘permanent fixture’ in the calendar of IT professionals worldwide that account for the event’s 100,000+ visitor count. The importance of GITEX cannot be overstated, given the critical role that the event plays in bringing together key exhibitors from the regional and international IT industry into direct contact with technology professionals and decision makers from the GCC, Middle East and Africa, India, Iran, Levant, Pakistan, Asia, America and Europe,” added Winfield.