Saudi market provides immense scope to Pak software companies
ISLAMABAD- The Saudi Arabian Embassy has assured all help to Pakistani software companies for operations and co-operation with Saudi companies in the kingdom.
This assurance was provided by Tarig M. A. Bahhah, First Secretary of Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, during a GITEX follow-up meeting with representatives of local software companies and officials of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB).
The PSEB had made arrangement for the participation of local software companies in GITEX, Riyadh-April 2002. This was also the first time that eight local software companies participated in an international IT exhibition displaying their products at the Pakistan pavilion.
Tarig Bahhah held out an assurance that the Saudi Embassy would urgently process visa applications of representatives of Pakistani software companies. He also assured all help in that regard. He said that the co-operation in the field of IT would further strengthen relations between the two countries.
He said that the Saudi government was paying utmost attention for the promotion of IT education in the country. Government schools were paying special attention towards imparting IT education and English language to students.
Suhail Shahid, MD, PSEB, said on the occasion that the PSEB was considering opening an office in Riyadh, as Saudi IT market had been assessed over $ 40 billion during the next decade.
The opening of office would facilitate local software companies to establish cordial business relation with companies there to get a major chunk in the Saudi IT markets.
Pakistani software companies have been facing hindrance in establishing relationship with companies operating in the kingdom due to the condition that requires presence of a company’s office in the kingdom for operations.
Local software companies have got many leads by participating in GITEX. The establishment of PSEB office in Saudi Arabia would cater to the needs of local software companies, he added.
Shahid Saeed, General Manager ABN AMRO Global IT Systems, said that the participation in GITEX was a great opportunity for establishing relations with companies operating in the kingdom. “Our company had three very good leads at the exhibition. We are bidding in three projects and one of the projects is worth 100,000 dollars”.
MASSIVE SAUDI RESPONSE: Majid Maqbool of Habib Rafiq Technologies said that they were looking for establishing long-term relationship with Saudi companies. He said that during the exhibition, he noted the Saudi people were very co-operative and friendly towards Pakistan pavilion and their response was massive.
Disclosing that Habib Rafiq construction has opened an office in Saudi Arabia, he hoped that the IT bonding between the two countries would further expand the brotherly relations between them.
Adnan Kareem of Makabu said that their talks with some Saudi companies for products and services were at an advance stage and deals were likely to be signed in near future.
He added that the Saudi market provided immense scope to local software companies, especially in the field of schooling, ERP solutions and converted application porting due to the leaving of American and European companies from the market.
Obaid Wali of Acrologix informed the participants of the meeting that their company had managed three contracts at the exhibition and software was to be delivered soon to their Saudi partners.
Asif Bilal of PiSigma and Ahsan Ahmad of Chriss-Lakson Group also spoke on the occasion.
Arif Khosa, Director Domestic, PSEB informed the meeting that there was enthusiastic response at the GITEX Pakistan pavilion that completely overshadowed the nearby Indian pavilion.
The Indians were so depressed at the success of Pakistan pavilion that they sneaked in the pavilion posing as Pakistanis to assess reasons for the success.
Representatives of software companies thanked the Government and people of Saudi Arabia for their co-operation and affection for the people of Pakistan as witnessed during the exhibition.
The meeting was also attended by Director International Marketing PSEB, Waqar Butt, Director Projects Abdul Basit, Director Finance Talib Baloch and Project Manager Arif Rizvi.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:6/16/2002
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