More than 400 local and international firms will participate in the first major Information Technology exhibition, GITEX 2002, to be held in Riyadh April 21-25, organizers said Tuesday, November 27.
The exhibition, jointly organized by the Dubai World Trade Center (DWTC) and Riyadh Exhibitions Company, is also backed by the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a host of international firms.
Riyadh will become the fifth venue for the largest Arab IT showcase after Dubai, Cairo, Beirut and Hyderabad in India, DWTC General Manager Wahid Attalla said. OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia is the largest IT market in the Middle East and accounts for more than 40 percent of total IT sales in the Gulf States.
Attalla said preparations for the exhibition were going ahead despite the consequences of the September 11 terror attacks on the US which have affected the exhibition business in the Gulf. According to Attalla, the number of visitors to exhibitions held in Dubai this fall dropped by more than 10 percent and a large number of foreign executives, especially from the US, canceled plans to visit such exhibitions. But he said that so far there had been no cancellations for the GITEX exhibition in Riyadh.
Prince Saud Abdullah Al-Faisal, chairman of Riyadh Exhibitions, said the main purpose of the exhibition is to promote Riyadh as a major regional center for IT and telecommunications. Attalla said multinational companies were increasingly opening permanent offices in Riyadh to benefit from the latest economic developments in the kingdom.— (AFP, Riyadh)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
