Dubai Internet City targets emerging markets

Dubai Internet City (DIC) is focusing on emerging markets such as India, China, Russia and Poland in order to attract more firms in to the technology free zone, a senior official said on Tuesday.

"We have recently visited the US and Europe. We are looking at emerging markets like India, China, Russia and Poland as all these countries have strong potential and are untapped. We went to Poland because it has a very good base of programmers. With India, there is a historical relation with us. While Russian technologies have not been adopted significantly across the world so there is a strong potential as well. Similar is the case with the China," said Ammar Al Malik, managing director, Dubai Internet City.

Malik was speaking after the inauguration of India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) office in the DIC. Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE, Dhibjani Gosh, president, Nasscom, also attended the inauguration ceremony. An agreement was signed between DIC and Nasscom during the last Gitex to allow small and medium enterprise (SMEs) from India to have presence in Dubai.

"There is an overwhelming response from the Indian SMEs to set up base here because Dubai is a gateway for the Mena region. There is a lot of potential for the smaller Indian firms to grow in the Mena region and this is the platform for them to use to grow," Malik said, adding that big Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy, Tech Mahindra and HCL already presence here in the DIC.

There are currently over 1,600 companies operating and 25,000 people working in DIC. Last year, it had announced that its community members collectively attracted Dh7.8 billion in funding since its launch.

"We don't focus too much on numbers but look into how many talented people we have here. The fundamental thing that benefits the economy is the strong presence of talented people that you have in technology sector. We have almost 25,000 people in DIC alone. We will make it around 40,000 in the next five to seven years," Malik told Khaleej Times in an interview.

Dhibjani Gosh, president of Nasscom, expects 30-40 companies from India to avail this facility and explore Dubai market for growth.

"DIC is providing us the co-working space and this opportunity will enable Nasscom's SME members to establish themselves in Dubai and get access to the largest technology community, providing them a gateway and necessary support to grow in the UAE and to the rest of the region," Gosh said after the inauguration.

Most of the Indian ICT companies use Dubai as a gateway to cater Mena region. According to India's Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), the South Asian country's exports of electronics goods to Middle Eastern countries during 2017-18 was valued at $885 million (Dh3.25 billion). The UAE was the top destination followed by Saudi Arabia.

Kamal Vachani, regional director for Middle East for ESC, said the council has been facilitating to increase India's IT exports to the Gulf and leveraging that association to get business for Indian IT companies from a multitude of large global corporations.