Al Alam Al Youm, P.4 (26-12-2006)

By: Khaled Hassan (from Dubai)

 

    IT services industry is one of the promising domains, which play a key role in increasing IT exports and generating more job opportunities. Local IT companies everywhere can have a share in the global IT market through forming partnerships with international companies. I believe that the applications of "outsourcing" industry are expanding all over the world in an unprecedented way, giving room to countries, like India and Egypt, to have a good share in this new industry.

 

Undoubtedly, the Middle East has become an attractive destination for those interested in setting up software development and technical support centres. In this context, India's Satyam Computer Services has recently signed an MoU with the Egyptian government for setting up a global development centre in the Smart Village in Cairo. Satyam said that the centre would serve as a major technological development and software support facility for its Middle Eastern customers.

 

Mr. B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam's founder and Chairman, held an international press conference in Dubai, the UAE, to speak about the company's future plans in the Middle East markets. At the outset, Mr. Raju said that his company had been working in the Middle East region since six years through its Regional Office in Dubai. Then, the company has decided to expand its presence in the region and signed an agreement with the Egyptian government for the establishment of a software development centre.

 

He added, "We would like to make use of the massive technical and human potentials available in the Egyptian market to meet the requirements of our customers in the Middle East and to be very close to our customers in the region. Satyam adopts a global strategy, which aims at setting up development centres in different countries, including Brazil, Malaysia and China. We offer our services to 521 international companies in 55 countries across the globe."

 

He said that the Centre, to be established in Cairo, would be inaugurated by next year and it would offer its IT services to local, regional and international business institutions. In the initial stage, about 300 engineers will be recruited and then this number will be increased as per supply and demand. The Centre will sharpen the skills of those engineers through a special 3-month training course in addition to other regular courses in order to enable them performing their tasks in an efficient and professional way. The Centre will turn Egypt into a major hub for IT services in the region.

 

"The banking, industrial, construction and health sectors are among the key domains that would benefit from the IT services to be offered by the Centre. The Egyptian market is rapidly growing and this is a strong indicator for growing need for IT and telecommunication services ", Mr. Raju said. He added, "However, we still have to gather more information about the Egyptian market so that we can open an Office for us in Egypt."

 

Mr. Raju said, "The Indian IT companies have long experience in the field of information technology, which dates back to more than 25 years. So, the Egyptian IT companies will not be able to compete us. However, we can form mutually-beneficial integration and cooperation ties. We can offer the technologies and Egypt has highly-qualified manpower."

 

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