DIC expects 2009-level registrations this year

Dubai Internet City (DIC), a member of Tecom Investments, expects to see registrations of new companies in the free zone at the 2009 levels when 135 new entrants registered at the Middle East's biggest such facility.

Majed Al Suwaidi, Director of Commercial operations at DIC, said yesterday: "The year 2010 looks positive. Last year there were new companies and premises being added within DIC. There were 135 new companies which registered last year and in terms of space there will not be expansion of area. In fact we have our other free zone partners in Dubai therefore companies can have access to their premises."

The IT free zone was previously experiencing a yoy growth of 40 per cent in new registrations before 2008. "In recent times the growth figure has come down to 10-20 per cent. This increase of registration is a positive sign for Middle East, which is also connected to the high spending pledged by the government. It is clear that lot of infrastructure depends on IT and in correlation IT spending cannot be cut in this regard," said Al Suwaidi.

"Companies expanding and focusing in the region will look at expanding its footprint in the region. At DIC, we are optimistic about the market as the registrations compared to 112 of 2008 increased to 135 in 2009," added Al Suwaidi.

The free zone authority is also looking at working with technology companies and partners to invest in technologies such as video conferencing and cloud computing for the companies operating at DIC.

"Teleconferencing is being used but we are open to implementing technology models based on cloud computing. DIC will use talent available within the free zone to deploy these technologies but will not compete with our partners," said Al Suwaidi.

He said there are challenges in the region to deploy these technologies. "It is new therefore there has to be a mentality change and companies are getting geared for this change. Adaptability of technology is not high as other parts of the world but its changing for the good," said Suwaidi.

 

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