GCC spending on Information Technology exceeds AED 33 billion

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, August 06, SPA -- Information Technology pending in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to exceed AED 33 billion in 2008, representing a 15% growth in comparison to 2007, according to a report by research firm IDC.
The rising IT spending in the region has been mainly driven by the
burgeoning hardware market, which comprised 62.1% of the entire
industry, bumping off the services sector at 24.3% and the packaged
software market at 13.6%, the report was quoted as saying by the UAE
news agency "WAM".
With aims to leverage the booming regional hardware market, NETGEAR,
a worldwide provider of technologically advanced and branded
networking products, has announced plans to highlight its range of
best-of-breed networking and storage products, through its expanding
regional operations in the GCC.
The IDC report also revealed that the six GCC countries - Saudi
Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman - will account for
nearly 23% of the total IT spending of the entire Middle East and
Africa (MEA) region, which is expected to exceed AED 146.8 billion in
2008, making them key markets for NETGEAR's regional expansion plans.
The report further pointed to the potency of the Gulf Information
Technology market, which is expected to exceed AED 44 billion by
2011, representing a growth of almost 12%. Saudi Arabia is the
largest market in the region, comprising 43% of the overall IT
spending, followed by the UAE with 36%, Kuwait with nine per cent,
Qatar with five per cent, Bahrain with four per cent and Oman with
three per cent.