6.7 billion dirhams, the volume of spending on software in the UAE

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Yousef Al Arabi (Abu Dhabi) wrote:

Spending on software in the UAE will amount to about 6.7 billion dirhams ($1.83 billion) by the end of 2021, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), which specializes in communications and information technology research.
IDC expects software spending in the UAE to grow by 9.5% to reach Dhs7.34 billion ($2 billion) during 2022, driven by the acceleration of innovation and economic recovery.
Experts in the communications and information technology sector stressed that government initiatives, the massive development of infrastructure, and the expansion of the capabilities and scope of 5G networks pave the way for building a strong software industry that knows its way to foreign markets.
They pointed out that the growth of the software industry in the country helps various sectors to access the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its applications, which began to spread in the governmental and private sectors.

advanced structure
For his part, Alaa Al-Shimy, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group in the Middle East, told Al-Ittihad: The massive development of network infrastructure in the UAE constitutes a fundamental pillar of innovation, especially in the software sector.

  • Alaa Elshimy

He noted that the expansion of modern communications networks and the increase of their capabilities, including the fifth generation and optical fiber networks, opened limitless horizons for inventing software and solutions that could not have been developed before this type of advanced networks characterized by a superior ability to transmit data.
Al-Shimy pointed out that global experience has proven that the leading countries in the field of network development are the most capable of keeping pace with the applications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and adopting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and data analysis.
The 5G network represents a fundamental pillar for the development of the instantaneous software industry, which is a major part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which the UAE is currently expanding in its applications.
The fifth generation wireless network provides high speeds and high response speed, which provides the necessary support for software, especially in advanced robotics and applications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
At a time when it is difficult to support robots and mobile automated devices through a fiber-optic network, the importance of the fifth generation to provide these speeds to ensure instantaneous software processing of orders execution.

strong industry
Ehsan Anabtawi, Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft UAE, stressed that the UAE is one of the most important countries qualified to build a strong software industry, benefiting from the availability of a strong network infrastructure and promising start-up companies, most of which depend on software developers.

  • Ehsan Anabtawi

Anabtawi said, in previous statements, that Microsoft supports the UAE program to attract 100 programmers per day, as the company provides training and educational platforms in the field of programming, application building, artificial intelligence, machine learning and cloud computing, as the company has trained tens of thousands in these areas during the last period. He explained that the company uses two platforms to support programmers, the first of which is the Visual Studio platform, which is one of the most important platforms for software development, and the GitHub platform, which Microsoft acquired two years ago, and which includes 30 million programmers around the world.
He added that the demand for the two platforms in the UAE is very high, given the importance of the software industry and the government’s vision for this vital industry.

national program
The UAE launched the largest national program specialized in empowering programmers and unleashing the potential of programmer communities in the UAE. The program included 100,000 golden residencies, the creation of 1,000 technology companies, the establishment of 10 programming departments in universities, and 100 programming challenges in the sector, as well as a unified mechanism for evaluating programmers.
For his part, Ghanem Al Shaer, Chief Executive Officer of Shipkal Group, said: The successes achieved by the UAE in the technology sector in general and the programming sector in particular, come from a clear government vision that established an advanced telecom sector to create a better future.

  • Ghanem Al Shaer

Al Shaer pointed out that the UAE’s projects in the field of programming, foremost of which is the initiative to attract programmers, contribute to the cross-fertilization of ideas and the localization of programming technology in the country, so that the UAE becomes among the leading countries in this field.

Source: Middle east in-24