Page 64 - SAMENA Trends - March 2020

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ICT Spending in UAE to Reach US$23 Billion by 2024

ICT spending in the United Arab Emirates solutions, customer data analysis, stock reality apps, as well as smart sensors
(UAE) will reach US$23bn in 2024, according trading and asset management platforms," and 3D printing, to enhance productivity,
to new research from GlobalData. The Sharma says. "Demand for smart mining improve quality control and ensure safer
figure represents a compound annual solutions is expected to rise as oil and workplaces. Similarly, the travel and
growth rate (CAGR) of 8% during the gas companies strive to enhance their leisure industry is expected to increase
period 2019-2024. GlobalData says the operational efficiency. On the other investments in big data technology to
results show that the UAE continues to be hand, the continued threat of security understand travelers preferences and
among the most attractive ICT markets in breaches will maintain demand for AI- track their real-time information. "High
the Middle East, driven by digitalization based autonomous security technologies," demand for data collection, analysis and
initiatives and aided by the increased he explains. According to GlobalData's automation services to monitor production
adoption of leading technologies such research, ICT investments in the and employee performance, as well as
as cloud, big data analytics, internet of construction and travel & leisure sectors investments in cyber security are expected
things (IoT) and artificial intelligence are also expected to increase significantly. to significantly increase over the next
(AI). "Digitization of the UAE economy, The construction industry in the UAE few years," Sharma says. "Additionally,
economic diversification initiatives by continues to incline towards the adoption increased investments in emerging
the government, growing adoption of IoT of advanced technologies such as building technologies such as AI and block-chain
technologies and rising demand from the information modeling (BIM) software, solutions will act as catalysts for the ICT
enterprise, retail and construction sectors drones, virtual reality and augmented spending market in the UAE."
are the major factors driving the growth
of the ICT market," says Rohit Sharma,
senior analyst at Global Data. According
to the research, the services segment
accounted for around 58% of the overall
ICT spending in 2019 and is forecast to
retain the largest share by the end of
2024. However, the software/application
segment is projected to record the highest
CAGR of 11% during the forecast (2020-
24) period. "Strong demand for PCs and
servers by consumers and businesses,
as well as continued investment by
companies in IT infrastructure, will boost
the sales of the hardware segment in the
forecast period," says Sharma. "The overall
revenue from hardware/infrastructure is
estimated to reach US$6bn by 2024." The
research shows ICT spending across the
banking, financial services and insurance
(BFSI) and energy verticals will account
for a major share (43%) of the overall ICT
spend in the country by 2024. "Financial
services firms will continue to maintain
spending on IT products related to
banking such as mobile banking, payment

64 MARCH 2020