Dubai Internet City (DIC), the regional ICT hub, will seek to strengthen ties and explore new business opportunities through its participation at the 6th Gulf Information Technology Exhibition for Saudi Arabia (GITEX Saudi 2007), the largest IT exhibition in Saudi Arabia and second largest in the Middle East after GITEX Dubai.

Scheduled to be held at the Riyadh International Exhibition Centre from 15-19 April, 2007, GITEX Saudi 2007 will host the DIC Community which will include Focus Softnet, one of the leading Business Management Software Solutions vendor in the Middle East, and Xceed Professional Services, the Dubai-based customer contact consulting practice that delivers expertise in customer contact operations.

Jamal Abdulsalam, Executive Director of DIC said: “GITEX Saudi is one of the largest information and communications technology exhibitions in the Middle East, enabling leading companies and professionals to exchange ideas and information in one of the world’s fastest growing and most exciting markets. Dubai Internet City is a strategic base for companies targeting emerging markets in a vast region extending from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, and Africa to the CIS countries, covering 2 billion people with GDP $ 6.7 trillion.

“Saudi Arabia's tremendous potential makes it an extremely exciting market. GITEX Saudi will be a strategic platform for our Business Partners to strengthen their brands and build further partnerships.”

According to Saudi Arabian Investment Authority (SAGIA), the Kingdom is the largest market for ICT companies and the government is committed to invest US.6 billion for the development of IT sector.

As Saudi Internet connectivity surges, usage of e-commerce and e-banking services is growing fast. Consequently, sales of related software and hardware, including personal computers and notebooks, in fact Saudi Arabia accounts for 40% of all computer and IT application sales in the region’s booming billion information technology market, nowhere in the region are more computers and IT applications being sold.

DIC currently hosts 32 Saudi companies including Itsalat International Co, The Saudi Research Publication Co. LLC, and MENA eSolutions FZ-LLC and is looking to extend its business links with the Saudi ICT market.

DIC is already nearing the 1,000-mark for establishments within its boundaries, including international and major ICT players such as LexMark, Intel, and General Electric (GE), Microsoft, Cisco Systems, IBM, HP, Dell, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, making it one of the largest managed clusters of ICT companies in the world. The number of business partners at the ICT hub has grown at an average annual rate of 53 per cent since its launch in 2000.