Monday, June 11, 2001		Article

Compaq eyes Gulf for growth
Miral Fahmy

COMPAQ Computer Corp said it expected rising oil prices to increase the Gulf’s growing appetite for state-of-the-art information technology and accelerate its regional sales growth to more than 20 per cent.

Samer Chaar, general manager for the giant US computer maker’s Gulf and Levant unit, said stronger oil prices were providing governments in the region with ample funds to spend on updating their IT and telecommunication infrastructure, making the region one of Compaq’s more promising markets.

"As oil prices are still strong, the economies are in good shape, therefore we believe the role of IT will be growing in the region as governments are committed to developing infrastructure and pumping money to bring it to the next level," Chaar said in an interview.

International Data Corp. has estimated that the Middle East’s IT market, which includes computers, software and services, will probably grow about 20 per cent annually to $3.8 billion this year and $4.6 billion in 2002, from $3.2 billion in 2000.

Software giant Microsoft Corp. has described the Middle East and Africa region as its fastest growing.

Compaq said it expected its sales growth to exceed the regional average, although Chaar declined to provide specific forecasts for Compaq’s performance.

He said that even though the region’s Internet penetration level was as low 2 per cent, the number of mobile telephone users made it a ‘juicy’ market. "We have about 2.6 million Internet users and more than five million GSM users. Combined, we are talking about a significant market that is already using IT for business," he explained.