The UAE computer market represents one of the largest trading sectors in the country. Market sources estimate that locally assembled Personal computers (PC) account for 30 percent of the 130,000 desktop computers annually sold in the UAE.
Local Emirati assemblers sell at prices lower than those of their counterparts in other Gulf countries. However, because the affluent UAE population tends to prefer brand names, most of the locally assembled PCs are intended for export, mainly to Iran, India, Africa and the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). A substantial portion of the domestically sold computer hardware and software is bought by tourists and home-going expatriates, meaning that it is technically re-exported.
Total Information Technology (IT) spending in the UAE is projected to grow by over 20 percent during the year 2001, to three billion dirhams ($817 million). According to industry experts, IT expenditure in the UAE will reach Dh 3.7 billion (one billion dollars) in 2002, at which point the UAE’s IT outlay will represent more than one-quarter of the IT spending in the entire Middle East region.
The country’s per capita income now exceeds $17,000, and has been rising at an annual rate of approximately 12 percent. Last year, the UAE’s GDP grew to Dh 242.8 billion ($66.1 billion), compared to Dh 131.2 billion ($35.7 billion) merely seven years earlier. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
