RIYADH: The four-day GITEX Saudi Arabia 2011 and Saudi Communications 2011 will start Monday with the support of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohamed Jameel bin Ahmad Mulla at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center.
The show, which is the 10th International Information Technology Exhibition to be held in the capital, has attracted over 400 exhibitors from 16 countries. It will be held May 16-19.
Mohammed Al-Hussaini, deputy general Manager of the Riyadh Exhibitions Company (REC), the organizer of the event, said major government agencies, such as the National Information Center (NIC), the Ministry of Interior, Riyadh Municipality, the Public Pension Fund, and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology will have pavilions at the expo.
Major ICT players, such as Alcatel-Lucent, HP, Dell, Sony, Kaspersky, Blackberry, Bravo, Epson, Acer and ASUS, will also be participating.
Computers and computer hardware made up 50 percent of consumer electronics sold last year in the Kingdom. Domestic spending is expected to increase from the last year's $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion in 2011.
A two-day seminar will also be organized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on the sidelines of the show.
According to a Abdul Rahman Al-Oraini, advisor to Minister Mulla, the seminar will include lectures, demonstrations and discussions on the latest products and advances made in the relevant field.
Al-Oraini said the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is keen on developing the IT sector with the active participation of both the private and public sectors for the benefit of the people. He added that the workshop would provide an awareness and insight into the progress made by the Kingdom in the IT sector.
Since the telecom market was opened up to competition in 2005, Saudi Arabia has become increasingly connected, with 44.8 million mobile phone subscribers as of 2009. From 2001 to 2009, the Compound Annual Growth Rate was 43 percent while mobile penetration reached 175 percent, higher than the global average of 67 percent and developed countries average of 114 percent. Mobile penetration is expected to reach 214 percent by 2014, according to BMI, while mobile phone sales are forecast to grow 7 percent year-on-year to $1.1 billion.
The Kingdom has a fixed telephony density of 16.3 percent, marginally lower than the global average of 17.8 percent but higher than the Arab world's average of 10.5 percent. Telecom services revenues were $14 billion in 2009, up 13 percent year-on-year, with mobile services accounting for 77 percent of overall revenues.
© Arab News 2011
