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V.Rishi Kumar

HYDERABAD, Feb. 7

DUBAI Internet City, the IT hub created by the Dubai Government as a part of its free trade zone, is working towards synergies between companies located in West Asia and Indian software houses, particularly in the areas of IT-enabled services and disaster recovery management space.

A senior representative of Dubai Internet City, Mr Amit Jauhri, who was in Hyderabad recently as a part of Gitex 2003 held here, told Business Line that out of about 450 companies located in the Internet City, 18 per cent of them are from India. And out of this, there are about 13 firms based out of Hyderabad, which includes Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Wipro is another major Indian company to locate a centre there.

"We have created a state of the art infrastructure which is serving as a gateway to the region. A company locating its base in the Dubai Internet City, apart from serving the local market there, can conveniently handle CIS countries as also some parts of Africa and Europe," he explained.

"There is increasing emphasis on the IT-enabled services space in West Asia. Since Dubai serves as a financial services hub having about 43 banks serving about 3.5 million people and a fast growing telecom market, there is huge opportunity for Indian companies," he said.

"We are keen to attract more Indian companies to the Internet City as we see this association can bring in a lot of business synergies between companies in West Asia and those located here. For instance, the retail business is one of the fastest growing space in Dubai where Indian IT companies can provide value addition," he said.

"The Dubai Internet City had earlier signed a memorandum of understanding with Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) and we also have state-level knowledge sharing arrangements. Coupled with the pro-active initiatives of the Andhra Pradesh Government, we see more companies tapping the business potential offered in the region by multinational companies," Mr Jauhri explained.

MoU with APFIRST

To further extend this collaborative initiative, a MoU was entered into recently between APFirst, a body formed by the Andhra Pradesh Government to promote business process outsourcing opportunities here, and Dubai Internet City, to collaborate in IT-enabled services space and for the establishment of data centres. The arrangement also envisages joint surveys and research initiatives to determine ways to promote IT ES business.

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