GITEX 2012 INTERVIEWS ITU TELECOM World 2012 - Teletimes

Africa tipped as decade’s next big investment opportunityGITEX Technology Week 2012 helps Middle East businesses tap into emergingcontinent’s latent ICT potentialAfrica is set become one of theInformation and CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) investmentopportunities of thedecade, according to leading industryexperts. Keen to explorethis emerging market and promoteits significant ICT opportunitiesfor global and MiddleEast-based companies, GITEXTechnology Week is putting itsmost prominent spotlight yet onthe continent. GITEX Technologyis running from October 14-18 atDubai World Trade Centre.This year, GITEX has seen a23% increase in exhibitors fromcountries like Algeria, Egypt,Libya, Morocco, Nigeria andSouth Africa. Strong trade delegationsare also present fromcountries like Zambia, Kenya,Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania,South Africa, Lesotho,Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.“We see GITEX as the idealopportunity to foster businesslinks between Middle East andAfrican companies. Now, giventhe new geopolitical situation,countries like Tunisia, Moroccoand Egypt are looking for newmarkets and new opportunities,and Dubai is now the mostimportant place to look forpartners and promote eventsand products. For us, and ourdelegates, GITEX is where wewill find what we’re lookingfor in the ICT sector,” saidChihab Bargaoui, BusinessDevelopment and RelationshipManager with Sfax InternationalFair Association, a partgovernment-backed exhibitionorganiser in Tunisia.GITEX’s “Africa in Focus”highlight comes at a time whensignificant regional investorbuzz is moving from the BRIC(Brazil, Russia, India and China)nations to also encompass theemerging continent, particularlypotential economic powerhousessuch as Nigeria, whichfeatures the largest Africanpopulation, as well as notablenatural resources such as goldand oil to aid its growth.Africa’s ICT sector has flourishedin recent years and ispredicted by IT market intelligencespecialists InternationalData Corporation (IDC) to grownearly 13% year on year in 2012.Anticipating this prospect,GITEX will provide the opportunityto broaden existing linksand develop new partnershipsin the ICT sector betweenAfrica and the Middle East. Accordingto DHL, South Africa isthe UAE’s 13th most importantmarket for non-oil exports,while Dubai Exports notes thattotal exports and re-exportsfrom Dubai to South Africaalone valued at USD408 millionin 2011. Trade between Africaand Dubai had previously registeredsteady growth as moreand more African countriescontinue to adopt free tradepolicies, and recognise Dubai’sposition as an internationaltrading hub.Trixee Loh, SVP, Dubai WorldTrade Centre, organiser ofGITEX, said: “Africa is seeinga tremendous shift towardsrealising the full potential ofthe benefits of technology,across all sectors. ICT in Africais growing at a vigorouspace and there is ampleopportunity to take advantageof technology solutions asthe information economy isbecoming one of the maindrivers for growth.”Now in its 32nd year, GITEXis introducing a host of newfeatures which are expectedto appeal to African visitors tothe world’s third-largest ICTexhibition and conference.Contd. from page 23du demonstrates exciting new digital...to deal with will grow by a factorof at least 75. Meanwhile,the number of IT professionalsin the world will grow by lessthan 1.5 times.IT research company Gartnerbelieves that 85% of Fortune500 organisations will beunable to exploit big data forcompetitive advantage up until2015, presenting a lucrativeplaying field for those providingviable solutions. Opensource analysts Wikibon recentlypredicted that the marketwill experience a compoundannual growth rate of 58% betweennow and 2017 to hit the$50 billion mark.According to a report onmerger and acquisition activityby independent mid-market investmentbank Berkery Noyes,sheer potential of this naturehas prompted a tripling of BigData company purchases duringthe first six months of 2012.Trixee Loh, Senior VicePresident at Dubai World TradeCentre, which organises GITEX,said: “From aggregating socialmedia for enhanced businessperformance and dialogue tocrunching search engine trendsto map disease outbreaks orpredicting unemploymenttrends, the ability to harnessthe power of Big Data isbecoming an absoluteimperative. GITEX TechnologyWeek is intent on moving theneedle on this issue across theMEA region, ensuring that bothopportunities and challengesare understood from allangles.”Now in its 32nd year and runningunder the theme “WhereTechnology Means Business”,GITEX Technology Weekconnects more than 130,000industry professionals and over3,500 suppliers from 144 countriesacross five continents,making it one of the world’stop three ICT exhibitions.08 24 www.teletimesinternational.comNovember 2012