• Home
• /
• Business

Egypt to have strong presence in GITEX this year, IT revenues soar

Helal Saeed Khalfan Al Marri, DWTC Director General, said: "IT revenues in Egypt are projected to grow by 7.63 per cent to exceed Dh2.24 billion ($ 613 million) in 2005, as we gear up to receive a delegation of ICT professionals from Egypt to participate at GITEX this year."

He added that IT revenues in Egypt for the year ending 2004 touched Dh2.09 billion ($569.5 million). "The IT demand in Egypt is varied with hardware systems, packaged software, peripherals and IT services making up for over 87 per cent of the revenues during 2004, while networking equipment and storage contributed for the rest," said Al Marri.

Egypt has maintained a modest annual GDP growth in the range of 2 to 3 per cent in the last couple of years. However, in 2004 Egypt implemented several measures to boost foreign direct investment. In September 2004, Egypt pushed through custom reforms, proposed income and corporate tax reforms, reduced energy subsidies, and privatised several enterprises.

ICT is a high growth sector all over the world and Egypt is no exception. Egyptian software and information technology is a growing and diversified industry, attracting considerable investment from the private sector, in addition to the government incentives supporting the sector.

Exhibitors from around the world use GITEX as a platform to demonstrate new technologies, launch the latest releases of a broad range of new IT solutions into the regional market and display their newest wares in a bid to tap new business opportunities.