IT spending in Kingdom set to hit $5.7b by end-2014 Per capita IT spending to reach $200 Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, President of King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, cuts the ceremonial ribbon during the opening of GITEX Saudi Arabia 2012 at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, Monday. RIYADH – GITEX Saudi Arabia 2012, a four-day premier business-to-business networking event and leading consumer information and communication technology (ICT) exhibition, kicked off Monday against a backdrop of skyrocketing demand for wireless data which is a key driver fueling the industry growth. Saudi Arabia possesses huge potential for the growth of smartphones, IPTV, WiMax, and security software market. Smartphone growth in the Kingdom will be driven by various factors including user generated content, availability of local content, rapidly evolving social networking websites, rich Internet applications, among others. One industry study projected that the Kingdom will observe rapid growth in 3G and broadband market during the next few years. In the face of mushrooming demand, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Suwaiyel, President of King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, inaugurated this year's event at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center, in which over 250 local and international exhibitors participating in the exposition. They are showcasing the latest developments and emerging trends within the buoyant Saudi ICT sector. According to RNCOS report on "Saudi Arabia ICT Market Forecast 2014", the Saudi ICT market has witnessed significant growth during the past few years with growth across almost every industry verticals. This growth is mainly due to the liberalization of the ICT market, intense competition, and dynamic demographics of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been experiencing rapid adoption of new technologies with huge potential in VAS and e-commerce. The Kingdom has become one of the fastest growing IT markets in the Middle Eastern region and is projected to account for up to 50 percent of the total ICT investments in the GCC during 2010-2012. Overall IT spending in Saudi Arabia is set to hit $5.7 billion by the end of 2014 from around $3.5 billion in 2010, at a compound annual growth rate of around 13 percent. The Kingdom's per capita IT spending is expected to reach close to $200 by 2014. Communications sector continues to be the largest investor in the IT industry. The report forecast that "there is still room for a better end-user experience and customization of applications, despite intense competition and price wars." It is projected that, the Saudi VAS market will witness a CAGR of around 10.6 percent during 2008-2015. It noted that growing youth population is an important factor for the surging IT spending in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the government spends much on infrastructure and education, which creates a huge demand for advanced technology and security. Further, the Saudi government has implemented various e-Government projects and many government projects are under development. Examples include e-government portal, e-government network, public key infrastructure (PKI), e-government interoperability framework, national smart ID cards, e-Payment gateway (Sadad), e-Tax system, social insurance system, and electronic information exchange. Besides, numerous government services are currently available online, such as investment licenses, visa applications, traffic tickets enquiry & payment, paying passport fees, and paying utilities bills, the report said. GITEX Saudi Arabia 2012 has generated remarkable interest from the local public sector. In addition to the support from the Ministry of Communications & IT, the event is seeing the participation of the Ministry of Interior-NIC, the Ministry of Justice, e-Government Program (Yesser), Riyadh Municipality, Technical & Vocational Training Corp., Commission for Communications & Information Technology (CITC), and BADIR-ICT. Further, the event is being attended by companies from China, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Japan, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Czech Republic, England, Turkey, UK, Germany and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. GITEX Saudi Arabia 2012 taps into latest ISP solutions, card technologies and smart chips, consultancy and training, customer relationship management (CRM), digital imaging and graphics, e-business, money management, information management, networks and business communications, office automation, online information systems, security solutions and wireless computing among others. According to Telecommunications Industry Association's 2012 ICT Market Review & Forecast, global Internet traffic will quadruple by 2015, and in five years, mobile broadband traffic will be 35 times current levels. The Middle East/Africa region will have 10 percent growth in telecom spending through 2015, followed by Asia Pacific at 9.5 percent and Latin America at 7.5 percent. In 2013 consumers will spend $108 billion on wireless data and $91.5 billion on wireless voice. GITEX Saudi Arabia 2012, the 11th International Information Technology Exhibition for Saudi Arabia, runs concurrently with Saudi Communications 2012 – The 14th International Telecommunications Exhibition which serves as the business-to-business portion of GITEX. The show is certified by UFI - the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, and is organized by Riyadh Exhibitions Company.
