Sergio Giacoletto

'This is partly because the adoption of necessary legislation takes such a long time in Europe, while here the legislative process is much shorter'.

The third most powerful man in the world's second largest software house, Giacoletto is a passionate believer in the power of the Internet to transform business and Government.

'The first tenders for the Dubai Government's e-Government initiative are just starting to emerge, and its commitment to the creation of an Internet service economy through the Dubai Internet City and its existing infrastructure is very clear,' he says. 'Sheikh Mohammed has the right approach and a willingness to invest in projects such as the DIC and the Tejari.com business-to-business exchange, which is an Oracle-based system.'

Just before his interview with AmeInfo.com/fn, Mr Giacoletto was signing off a deal with a local partner from Oman, who emerged from the meeting resplendent with traditional dagger for a photograph. Is Oracle keen to keep working through local partners?

'We have over 200 partners in the region supporting Oracle technology and applications,' says Mr Giacoletto. 'We need their flexibility and local knowledge.' But how will Oracle grow in this region? Where are the growth points?

'Take the Tejari.com exchange,' says Giacoletto. 'This brings together buyers and sellers. But then the sellers say 'we need a new procurement or financial system' and so they become our customers too. This is how the New Economy grows.' So is the New Economy really happening here?

'Yes, look at the 1,385 proposals we had for the DIC e-Business competition. Now we are down to the 20 finalists, but I think the top 50-60 will be good enough to actually launch. You have to be realistic about the size of the market, this is more like Europe with private equity rather than the US with its massive IPOs.'

Indeed, the Oracle boss's one serious worry is that there may be a backlash against Internet investment due to the high profile failures now being seen in Western countries. But Mr Giacoletto feels that the economic advantages of e-Business are so great that the Internet revolution will continue in the Middle East whatever happens.

'Nothing changes the enormous efficiency of e-Business and e-Government,' he says. 'All the big European companies are now sure they need it, and it will be the same in the Middle East. Where we have problems is where companies are run by committees and can not make up their mind.

'At Oracle we have one boss who makes the decisions and, since he decided that Internet was the place to go five years ago, we have moved forward very fast. It may be the same in the Middle East. This is one of our fastest growing regions, about the same size as Sweden, which is quite a large market, and is expanding at 50% per annum and that is two to three times faster than Europe. I am very impressed by what is happening here and very confident about the future.'