ICT Market In Russia Grows By 26% To Exceed AED 62 Billion – Al Marri

Trade visitors, exhibitors and vendors from Russia will descend on Dubai for GITEX 2005 in greater number this year looking for latest mobile devices and hardware solutions, thus strengthening their country’s growth momentum in the I.T. sector organisers Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) announced.

GITEX 2005, the globally acclaimed premier I.T. exhibition in its 25th edition, will be held from September 24 to 29, 2005 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“The ICT market in Russia touched AED 26 billion (US$7.10 billion) in 2003 and registered a growth of over 26% in 2004. By the year 2008, total spending on IT in Russia is expected to surpass AED 62.39 billion (US$17 billion),” said DWTC Director General Helal Saeed Khalfan Al Marri.

IDC reports point out that during 2004 sale of mobile devices jumped in Russia with shipments expanding by 55.5 per cent to more than 350,000 units and revenue by 56 per cent to AED 601 million (US$164 million). The report goes on to add that with Russia still far from saturation, shipments of mobile devices are expected to expand by 62.7 per cent this year and by 55.9 per cent in 2006.

Converged devices (those with mobile phone functionality) dominated the Russian market in 2004, accounting for 62.6 per cent of total shipments, the IDC report says.

Russia ended 2004 with its sixth successive year of growth, averaging 6.5% annually since the economic crisis of 1998. Although high oil prices and a relatively low-priced rouble are crucial drivers of this economic recovery, since 2000 investment and consumer-driven demand have played a visibly escalating role.

Russia has also enhanced its international economic situation since the 1998 financial crisis, with its foreign debt declining from 90% of GDP to around 28%. Robust oil export earnings have allowed Russia to increase its foreign reserves from only $12 billion to some $120 billion at year-end 2004.

These achievements, along with a renewed government effort to advance structural reforms, have raised business and investor confidence in Russia's economic prospects. The situation is ripe for Russia to expand its IT sector as demand from traditional industries like resource extraction, government and financial vertical markets keep rising in order to match the economic growth. Fuelling the additional IT growth are new and fast-growing sectors like telecom and retail.

“GITEX 2005 provides Russian companies exhibiting at the event as well as trade visitors with an excellent opportunity to identify products and solutions that would benefit their economy,” Mr. Al Marri remarked. “We are witnessing an increase in Russian exhibitors and by tracking our online visitor pre-registration there are indications of a surge in visitors too.”

By this year-end Russia is expected to see an increase of 40% in Internet usage and a nationwide total of 15 million Internet subscribers. Also, the country’s burgeoning IT market has been growing at a rate of 23% annually to generate AED 21.28 billion ($5.8 billion) in hardware and software revenues. “With such an impressive growth potential, GITEX will be an ideal platform for Russian trade visitors to source their IT requirements,” Mr Al Marri concluded.

GITEX 2005 will showcase an entire range of IT related products and services including IT equipment and systems, computer components and peripherals, storage media, printers, copiers and pre-print systems, consumer electronics and home automation, office automation, point-of-sale systems, embedded computer technology, security systems, power supplies for information and communication systems and biometric identification systems. The show also attracts a large number of exhibitors from telecommunications, wireless and networks, software and services and banking technology and financial services.

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