Qatar ICT spending projected to total USD 174.3 million from 2009 to 2011

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Qatar’s information and communications technology (ICT) expenditure is projected to total USD 174.3 million from 2009 until 2011, according to recent reports. Driven by its aims to support the technological revolution in Qatar, NETGEAR, a worldwide provider of technologically advanced and branded networking and storage products, is offering its best-of-breed products for the benefit of government departments, small and medium businesses (SMBs), as well as home users. One of the company’s latest products is the ReadyNAS NVX, a 4-bay desktop network-attached storage solution designed for SMBs, which was launched in the Middle East earlier this year.

The total investment outlay, as revealed by the same report, stipulates that Qatar will spend USD 80.6 million this year. Furthermore, the forecast also indicates that collectively, mixed-use civil projects in Qatar and the rest of the GCC countries will account for about USD 2.95 billion in communications hardware spending during the three-year period, while residential and commercial developments are expected to account for USD 674 million and USD 577 million, respectively.

“The country's GDP is expected to reach 9.7 per cent this year; this growth is being fuelled by income from oil and gas sales, which is being reinvested in infrastructure. Development at this astounding pace and demand for the bulk of communications hardware spending is precedent to the potential of Qatar's property market despite the challenge of the present economic slowdown,” said Ahmad Zeidan, Channel Sales Manager, NETGEAR Middle East. “The positive projection for the ICT spending in Qatar poses an excellent opportunity for us to expand our reach in this particular market, and we plan to do this by highlighting the advanced features of our products and capitalising on the clout of our extensive channel partner network in the country.”

With a focus on merging reliability with high performance, NETGEAR’s products include ethernet networking, broadband and wireless networking segments, comprising of switches, adapters, wired and wireless routers and gateways, enabling users to share internet access, peripherals, files, digital multimedia content and applications among multiple personal computers and other internet-enabled devices. Its most popular networking products, which have been used in a number of high profile projects in the region include ‘ProSafe Advanced Smart Switches’, a feature-rich, affordable, reliable and easy-to-manage alternative to fully-managed switches; and ‘ReadyNAS Pro’, a state-of-the-art storage solution that delivers excellent performance and robust features in a small desktop chassis supporting 6 Hard Disk Drive (SATA 2 enterprise) and up to 6 TB of storage.

“Given the growing need for new products that help organisations within Qatar and the region maximise their operations while providing robust protection for their valuable data, in addition, we also understand the challenges faced by customers especially during this economic slowdown. We are doing what we can to increase the value we provide to them, such as offering lifetime warranty for some of our smart products, and we are continuously investing in developing more products to meet our customers’ requirements. We consider the country as one of our key markets in the region; however, we remain vigilant in identifying opportunities within untapped destinations that can benefit from our portfolio of technology-driven products,” concluded Zeidan.