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HCL Technologies Sets Up Mideast Headquarters in Dubai; Targets Creation of 5,000 Jobs

A relative latecomer to the region’s burgeoning IT sector, the $5 billion HCL said its new regional headquarters in Dubai would be a springboard for penetrating into other markets across the Middle East.

“Dubai is an entrepot not only for the GCC but for the whole Middle East and North Africa region, and we believe the opening of the regional office a milestone in our corporate history,” said Shiv Nadar, founder chairman & chief strategy officer of HCL.

Nadar, who transformed HCL from an original IT garage start-up company of 1976 to a global giant employing 62,000 people, said he was looking for an anchor customer to add momentum to the regional growth.

Already, HCL services more than 25 large organisations in Middle East, offering services across a wide range of service lines. HCL Technologies has been delivering IT solutions across a cross-section of industries since its foray in the Middle East in 2007. “In a very short span of time, we have been able to structure strategic relationships with marquee customers and partners in the region,” said Nadar. “From our regional office in Dubai Internet City and other offices in the GCC, we will offer product engineering and R&D, custom applications, enterprise application services, infrastructure management services, and BPO,” he said.

“India and the Middle East have historically had strong ties and HCL is happy to take that relationship one step forward by extending this partnership to the technology realm,” he said at media briefing to announce the regional 
office opening. Nadar argued that HC is a pioneer of modern computing. From designing the world’s first micro computer at the same time as global IT peers in 1978, it has grown to work on the Boeing Dreamliner’s airborne systems today, he said. “We are happy to bring to our partners in the Middle East, HCL’s globally acknowledged transformational technology, which I believe will add great business value to the region. The Middle East, for us is a very interesting and high growth potential market and we continue to concentrate on it with a great deal of strategic intent and focus.”

Malek Sultan Al Malek, Executive Director, Dubai Internet City (DIC), said HCL’s decision to expand their business operations in Middle East would have a positive impact on the IT services industry in the region. “We are confident that HCL’s expanded facilities at DIC will further enable them to leverage market opportunities through initiatives and programmes available at the technology business park.”

Virender Aggarwal, senior vice president of Technologies said the opening of the Dubai office reflected the strategic importance of the Middle East market in HCL’s growth strategy. “We are confident that this new office will go a long way in helping us extend our globally benchmarked transformational IT services to corporations in Middle East. We are committed to a long term investment in this region.”

issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com