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First Indian IT exposition planned for UAE

The first 'India IT and Software Expo' has been planned in the United Arab Emirates from May 1 to 3.

The event is being organised by the Dubai based Indian Business Council and India's National Association of Software and Service Companies.

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An IBC statement says the event would be held in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital.

In Abu Dhabi, the event would be mostly a conference on Indian IT and software. In Dubai, there would be an exhibition that running alongside a series of seminars focussing on Indian software.

"The Middle East provides a large potential market for the Indian IT industry, both in terms of exports and joint ventures," IBC Governor Suresh Kumar claims.

He points out that much of the software currently used in West Asia is actually developed by firms contracted in India. He feels that Indian firms could make an attempt to tap the West Asia market directly.

According to IBC, Indian software exports to the region are only 3 per cent of the country's total exports from this sector.

About 60 per cent of India's software exports are to the US and around 23 per cent to Europe, it said.

As part of the promotional efforts launched by IBC some time ago, NASSCOM President Dewang Mehta made a presentation here in December.

IBC and NASSCOM are now jointly trying to promote partnership between user organisations in the UAE and software firms in India.

The IBC has formed an advisory group for the software sector whose members are senior professionals and Indian software houses with a presence in the UAE.

In October last year, the IBC had arranged for a visit by an Indian software delegation to meet Major General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, chief of Dubai police, and other senior officials for a presentation on the capabilities of the Indian IT sector.

Later, the IBC had also organised a conference here on the Y2K problem with participants from several Indian companies.

IBC is hoping that the exhibition and meetings in May would boost Indian software exports to this region.

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is supporting the event.

Some of the topics that will be discussed at the meetings are software opportunities in the Gulf, investments in free zones, IT planning in the UAE, data warehousing, enterprise resource planning implementation and the Internet and intranets.

Among other things, the IBC will moot a proposal for establishing a software technology park in UAE to enable software houses to locate themselves here and target the huge market in this region.

Top experts from the software sector, both from India and abroad, are being invited to participate in the seminars.

In the run-up to the event, IBC is planning presentations in India in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry. The first such meeting will be held in Bangalore on March 30 and the next in Madras on April 1, the statement added.

UNI

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