Craig Barrett

These are hardly good times for the IT sector or Intel, for that matter. Dr Barrett has seen many ups and downs since joining the company in 1974. Is this recession different from any other? And will Intel come out on top?

'I have been through nine and a half recessions since I joined Intel,' Dr Barrett told AMEInfo. 'I say half a recession because this one is not over yet. But this does seem to be the deepest and strongest recession for 30 years. There are four factors at work.

'First, there is a synchronized slowdown of the global economies which has not really happened for 30 years. Second, we are still suffering from the end of the dot-com explosion.

'Third, there has been massive over investment in the communications sector. We only need 10% of the installed fiber optic network, for example, and European telcom companies have paid out $100 billion for 3G mobile telephone licenses. Then finally, we saw the Y2K investment bubble.'

Dr Barrett says he hates to use the analogy of a 'perfect wave' but he reckons that is the best way to describe the problems currently afflicting the IT industry. However, he is upbeat about Intel's prospects.

'We have seen our revenues fall by 20%, but we are still investing $4 billion a year in research and development,' he notes. '1985 was a much worse recession for Intel. Then we almost lost the company. Today we are not in that situation and I am confident that we will come out of the recession in a stronger position than when we went in.'

That has certainly been the case at Intel in the past, and the history of this semi-conductor giant is peppered with examples of how rivals succumbed to recessions while Intel went on to prosper. The same men are still running Intel today, and there seems no reason to doubt Intel's survival capacity.

However, Dr Barrett is not predicting a quick recovery for the IT industry, and is preparing for a long struggle.

'What will turn the IT industry around is a recovery in corporate profits and I have not yet seen a prediction that I believe. So I don't know when investment will pick up. But the IT sector lags behind GDP growth and will be at the tail end of a recovery.'

So where is Intel investing itself? What will be its products to lead the recovery whenever it happens?

'We are investing heavily in wireless technology. The whole industry is getting excited about it,' says Intel's ceo who bares some resemblance to the actor Charlton Heston. 'Local area networks and wireless area networks are where we are very active.

'We are also developing chips for the three segments, enterprise, laptop and desktop computers, as well as larger processors for servers'.

Indeed, Dr Barrett says that it is this strong investment in new technology that will ensure that Intel emerges from this recession in better shape than ever. In the meantime, Intel is strongly committed to the Middle East and Dubai.

'Emerging markets are on somewhat different economic cycles, and Dubai is doing all the right things to promote the IT sector. That means education for young people, creating the infrastructure for a knowledge-based economy and government taking the lead with technology'.

Dr Barrett called on Dubai to promote regional cooperation and economic integration through the GCC, and to continue to invest in education.