The Dubai Internet City free zone employs 6,000 knowledge workers today, but this total is set to rise to 20,000 over the next two years, all housed in brand new offices. This ambitious forecast was made by the newly appointed chief executive officer of the DIC, Omar Bin Sulaiman, at the monthly luncheon meeting of the Australian Business Group in the Gulf this week, hosted by Rydges Plaza Hotel in Dubai. ”Initially we wanted to attract dot-com companies to Dubai but this vision was widened to include information technology and communications firms,” said Bin Sulaiman. ”Now we have over 6,000 knowledge workers in 315 companies in the DIC. I expect this number to increase to 20,000 over the next two years.” ”Now we have added the Knowledge Village to which will provide training and education for Information Technology (IT) staff,” he told the 100 members of ABIG. “The DIC is not for everyone,” he said. “If you do not want the level of connectivity that we offer then you should be setting up somewhere else. We do have an IP telephony system that is showcased by Cisco Systems around the world which is actually 20 percent cheaper than our local telco”. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
