GCC among top five markets for Microsoft

The GCC is software giant Microsoft's second fastest growing market in the Middle East and Africa and is among the top five areas worldwide in terms of growth, a senior company official said. "Oil and gas are the fastest growing sectors along with the government sector on a worldwide basis, followed by the telecommunications sector," said Ali Faramawy, Vice-President of Microsoft International Middle East and Africa, based in Turkey. "But in the Gulf the government sector is the growing fastest, followed by the financial, telecom and oil and gas sectors. And the UAE remains one of the greatest showcases for technology. These are not big markets in population terms, but the UAE has been a good location to host and attract talent." Faramawy said the pace of growth had certainly gone down due to the global financial downturn. "But it does vary from one region to another. In some countries growth has gone from double-digit to zero, in other countries from double to single-digit while some regions are maintaining double-digit," he added. Faramawy said this year's growth would be 65 per cent of the figure achieved in 2008. "In other words our growth has gone down." He said IT could help companies hit by the crisis to save money. "IT can help people to be more productive and help companies to connect better with their own customers." Customer relations management solutions were considered "one of the hottest pieces of software being sold today in the economic downturn since people want to hold on to their customers", Faramawy said. Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here .