Dubai Internet City and Dubai Export Development Corporation encourage companies to seek opportunities in India

The event was organized in association with the Dubai Export Development Corporation (DEDC).

As a member of Tecom Investments, Dubai Internet City successfully hosted the session for its business partners in the free zone, in partnership with a Dubai government initiative that aims to provide exporters with services that enable expansion into foreign markets.

Thirty senior level members and representatives from the DIC business community along with the DEDC delegates attended the event providing them with an informative and networking platform.

Malek Al Malek, Executive Director of Dubai Internet City said:

"In times where economic growth is slower, many of our business partners may want to know where their growth opportunities lie. Our partnership with the Dubai Export Development Corporation is an important way of creating a forum to bring together ICT companies that are keen to take advantage of export opportunities in India - a country whose economy has been steadily growing for two decades and where GDP is expected to continue to grow by approximately 7% in the coming year, even in the face of the global slowdown."

Following a five year cooperation agreement, signed in September last year, both Dubai Internet City and the EDC formed a joint management committee to assist companies at DIC to facilitate trade and export services in India's strong ICT market. Driven mainly by the manufacturing sector, a fast rise of this growth can also be attributed to the externalization of business overseas.

Engr Saed Al Awadi, CEO of Dubai Export Development Trade Corporation said: "The current economic environment will impact export trade activities globally but we believe that given India's robust growth over the past decade, the economy is resilient enough to even bring back investors that previously withdrew their businesses from the market. We look forward to working closely with Dubai Internet City where we can assist their business partners into India's ICT market and identify the areas where there are most business opportunities."

DIC's partnership with DEDC will look towards raising export opportunity awareness in Dubai while providing Dubai companies with a number of services including market assessments and recommendations on markets and sectors they would like to export to. In addition, EDC will also provide information on export credit information insurance.

Al Malek added:

"Dubai Internet City has played an active role in developing the regional ICT industry and we hope that through our partnership with the Dubai Export Development Corporation, we can encourage our business partners at DIC to continue to grow by entering profitable markets like India, while enhancing Dubai's position as a strong global trade partner."

IT industry figures reveal that there are 40 million internet users in India with an expected end-user spend of $110bn by 2012. While India's foreign direct reserves are the world's fifth largest after China, Japan, the EU and Russia, the country has an expected IT infrastructure growth of $246bn by 2012.