MIDDLE EAST

Roshan D’Silva Regional Manager LA-3, Jebel Ali Free Zone Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel: +9714 8830600 Mobile: +971 50 5508553 Fax: +9714 8830601 E-mail: rdsilva@theyorkgroup.com

Roshan has a depth of experience in selling complex services into the Financial Services, Government and Telecom sectors in the Middle East. He graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay with a Bachelor of Technology (EE).

Among his recent experiences, Roshan played a key role in the restructuring of two of the largest Middle Eastern Call Center initiatives - Mace W.L.L. in Qatar and Global Tech FZ LLC in Dubai Internet City. Prior to this, Roshan founded Myzus - a cellular products company based out of Bombay, India with direct presence in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and CIS. Myzus was recently named by Business Today as one of "Ten Companies for Tomorrow".

Roshan grew up in Qatar and is widely traveled in the U.S., Western and Eastern Europe as well as Asia-Pacific. He is a member of the IIT Bombay alumni association, TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and the SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs). He is also on the advisory team of the Entrepreneurship cell at IIT-Bombay.


Regional Spending on Information and Communications Technology
(Data provided by WITSA - www.witsa.org/digitalplanet )

	Spending ($millions)
Technology Sectors	Kuwait	Saudi Arabia	Egypt
Hardware	134	664	211
Software	72	222	158
Services	191	818	257
Communications	434	3,934	475
TOTAL ICT Spend	830	5,637	1,099
Vertical Markets
Agriculture	-	34	15
Manufacturing	70	393	90
Utilities	5	10	15
Construction	8	100	8
Wholesale & Retail	48	292	175
Transportation & Communication	58	485	164
Finance & Bus. Services	83	322	13
Other Services	76	134	193
Government	253	2,191	156
Consumer	189	1,292	263
Software Piracy	68%	54%	69%

 

Regional Overview

The Middle East is a region comprised of the lands that extend from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It defines a cultural area, so it does not have precise borders but is generally taken to include: Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey, Iran (Persia), Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The countries of the Maghreb (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia) are frequently linked to the Middle East due to their strong historical and cultural associations, as is Sudan. The African countries Mauritania and Somalia also have links to the region.

The region is home to the world's largest reserves of Oil and Natural Gas and esp. the Gulf countries have some of the highest per capita incomes in the world.

Surprisingly, though, the regions have lagged the rest of the world with regards to the adoption of technology and the percentage of GDP spent on research and development. This has been identified as a serious problem by local governments and they are making a significant effort to ensure that this is corrected in the long term.

Some interesting facts:

• Qatar Telecom, the monopoly operator for the State of Qatar (total population 800,000 people) did 386mn USD in profits on 717mn USD in revenues. Qatar is the smallest Gulf state by population
  
• Emirates, Dubai's national carrier capped a turbulent year in the global aviation industry (2004) by announcing its 17th consecutive profitable year with 708mn USD in profits on revenues of 5.2bn USD with no government assistance or subsidies and while continuing to be a full service award winning airline
  
• It is expected that record oil prices will mean Saudi Aramco will earn $100 billion in revenues which will put it on par with Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest car manufacturer, and the 12th largest listed company worldwide by revenues. The cost to pump oil (according to Saudi Aramco's website) is between $1-$2. Profits will go towards developing infrastructure in the Kingdom.