• Home
• /
• Business

BenQ sees 100pc growth in Mideast next year

DUBAI - Taiwan's IT major BenQ sees the Middle East as an important market where it expected to see 100 per cent growth next year.

K.Y. Lee, Chairman and CEO of BenQ, based in Taiwan said the Middle East region has been witnessing an increased IT spending thanks to increased demand from the education, government and the business sectors.

"IT demand in the Middle East outstrips the global demand and hence BenQ wanted to be a strong player in the regional market," he told this paper in an interview.

Last year the company reported 80-90 per cent growth in the region, Lee said.

He said as the company sees more growth, it will hire more local talent.

On the market for LCD monitors, he said the penetration rate has seen a steady increase.

Talking about the global market for IT, Lee said BenQ had posted 50 per cent growth last year and anticipate this momentum to continue in the second half of this year despite a slower first half.

He said the recovery in the US, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East has helped the IT spending.

Talking about the opportunities in the Iraqi market, he said BenQ will penetrate that market through its channel partners.

Lee said BenQ targets $5 billion in brand sales by 2008 compared to $3 billion at present.

Robert Dung, managing director of Benq Middle east said that the company was targeting certain markets in the region like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Eastern Africa

Dung said BenQ Middle East, the region's leader in digital life-style products, recently launch its first digital hub products in the region - the Joybook 8000, Joybook 5000 and Joybook 3000. The Joybook models that have integrated internal software represent the BenQ digital hub concept by being fully-fledged multi-media devices. "With almost two-thirds of the people in the Middle East below 25 years of age, there is a huge push for mobile computing products that can offer entertainment options," he said.

Resellers across the Middle East are already reporting significant demand for BenQ's latest range of products from the digital hub line, he said, adding that BenQ has also doubled its range of projectors in the Middle East with the announcement today that it has launched seven new models.

BenQ is an industry leader in networked lifestyle devices with an expertise that encompasses display, storage, imaging, wireless and broadband areas.

BenQ has 13,000 employees worldwide, supporting a strong global sales marketing and service network spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas and its 2002 revenue was $3 billion.