India has undertaken several initiatives to tap the booming software and electronics markets in West Asia and North Africa, MENA region. In order to encourage the small and medium exporters to help diversify and expand their global base, the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) will be sending a delegation of over 40 companies from India at the Global Information Technology Exhibition, GITEX, in Dubai during October 14-18th this year.The Regional Director of the Council, Kamal Vachani told All India Radio that India has a great stake in the markets of Middle East, Africa, Asia and European markets for which Dubai is the Gateway.
The Middle East Countries have emerged as then  2nd top destinatiofor India’s electronics hardware export during the year 2011-12. According to estimates, the export of electronics goods export has gone up to US$ 1.83 billion in 2011-12 with a growth of 52 percent over the previous year. Export of software and related services to Middle East has gone up by 26 percent. Export of software and services increased from estimated US$ 1.73 billion in 2010-11 to US$ 2 billion in 2011-12. The overall growth in exports of Electronics and software to Middle East countries during 2011-12 is estimated to be 37 percent. The growth in export to Middle East countries clearly shows the rising interest amongst the Indian ICT exporting community to explore Middle East and neighboring countries for export prospects. GITEX is the largest and the most impressive ICT event of its kind in the Middle East and is now ranked as one of the top three ICT exhibitions in the world. The event will provide the Indian ICT companies opportunities to expand in this region.

he Gulf region’s social media experts gathered at the GCC Government Social Media Summit in Dubai to share the experiences in the field of the sector. The experts from public and private sector underlined the need to harness the potential of the social media as a tool to reach out to the people and address their concerns in an effective manner. The two day summit will also highlight the growing challenges for the Governments to find how to respond to the social media. Dubai Telecommunications Regulatory Authority representative said that Governments should not only move with the times but stay ahead of the times, by anticipating social media trends and planning accordingly. The Director of the Dubai School of Government and the Conference Chairman, Fadi Salem told that Governments can no longer afford to be reactive, and must now be proactive. It means preventing any miscommunication or misconception before it even occurs, through regular two-way dialogue on social media networks. The representatives from UAE, USA, UK and New Zealand shared their experiences with the usage of social media. UAE is the leader in terms of social media network usage in the Arab world followed by Qatar. The facebook users in the Arab world have tripled in just two years from 16 million to 45 million. Half of the new additions were in the previous year alone. Twitter remains a reliable barometer of the region’s biggest talking points with approximately 6 million tweets per day which comes to almost 70 per second. Majority of the region’s social media users, around 70%, are the youth between 15-29 years. The region has been a witness to the political upheavals in the region associated with an effective use of social media networks to mobilize public opinion and hence, the summit holds a lot of potential for the Governments in the gulf region.

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