MENA's ICT growth to decrease by 5% in 2009 (page 3 of 3)

The privilege went to a selection of economies representative of the remaining MENA regions, which have largely underdeveloped ICT markets where growth tends to be more visible. Sudan, for instance, achieved 104.57% growth in the number of mobile phone subscriptions in 2007, the strongest in the Arab World.

Regionally, Levant countries grew by a strong 50.21 per cent to register 57,560,330 mobile phone subscriptions by year end 2007, from a growth rate of 48.15% in 2006. GCC countries meanwhile registered 43,921,844 mobile subscriptions in 2007.

Internet usage was the second fastest growing sector in the MENA, with users rising 32.55% from 29,731,910 to 39,408,690 in 2007. Moreover, all 18 Arab countries have liberalised their Internet services provision sector, one of the first sectors in most countries to be fully liberalised. Growth was driven by the steady progress shown in traditionally low-penetrated countries such as Algeria, Egypt and Sudan.

Algeria registered the region's strongest growth in Internet users in 2007 at 62.27% for a total of 4 million users. Except for Palestine, which registered a modest 5.24% growth - its Internet users rising from 525,000 in 2006 to 552,500 in 2007 - all MENA countries registered double digit growth, albeit modest in most cases. In total, 11 countries grew at a rate lower than the Arab average, including the UAE, Jordan, Oman and Kuwait.

Average Internet penetration for the 18 MENA economies was a low 12.16%. The UAE for its part remained the leader in Internet penetration with a 37.79% rate, followed by Bahrain (31.52%) and Qatar (31.41%) at second and third place respectively. Only four countries failed to breech the double-digit mark, with Yemen registering the lowest Internet penetration at 5.01%.

There was not much difference in regional growth levels in 2007, with Internet users in the GCC countries rising by 31.88% (10,830,000 users), to 30.14% growth in the Levant (14,979,500 users). North Africa registered stronger growth at 37.17% in 2007 to bring the number of Internet users up to 10,027,190. However, the year-on-year growth rates for each region represented a dramatic increase, where the Internet user growth rate in the GCC in 2006 was 9.36 per cent, 16.40% in the Levant and 20.17% in North Africa. Overall, Internet users in the MENA region grew by 15.20% in 2006.

Another important factor that is poised to strengthen the region's ICT sector is the creation of independent regulatory authorities, which oversee and decide on many or all aspects of telecommunications policy in markets that are already competitive or are being prepared for liberalisation.

At the end of 2007, Madar Research revealed that 13 of the 18 MENA economies surveyed for its study possessed independent regulatory bodies - representing an addition of one regulatory body over the previous year. Regulatory functions in the five countries - Yemen, Palestine, Kuwait, Libya and Syria - that lack an independent telecommunications regulatory authority are carried out by telecommunications ministries and government-owned incumbent providers.

Madar Research has likewise reiterated in its study that it has been difficult to calculate growth for the GCC region and other countries in the Arab World in 2007, given the fact that a number of indicators for 2006 and 2007 were corrected or adjusted by the service providers, in addition to major corrections in population figures made by some of the GCC countries in particular.