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BM first established presence in the Middle East over 60 years ago, and boasts strong ties to the region and a significant history of implementing numerous key projects and working with clients in different sectors. It installed the first computer in the region in Saudi Aramco over 50 years ago and was also the first company to introduce Arabic language support in the 1980s.

Tell us about IBM’s presence in Qatar. Today we are working on a number of groundbreaking initiatives and develop-ment partnerships across the Middle East

in cloud computing, nanotechnology, de-salination, solar power, e-government and healthcare. We also aim to support and col-laborate with educational and governmen-tal institutions throughout the region in working towards a smarter planet.

Qatar is a valuable regional player in terms of its economic opportunity and growth prospects. We’ve already been working with a wide base of important cus-tomers in Qatar and have recently opened an office in Doha with the aim of deepening those relationships and expanding our ser-vices further into the nation.

Although we are not currently in a posi-tion to disclose numbers, we are definitely looking forward to expanding our head-count in our Qatar offices and building a strong local team that will be capable of carrying out solutions and service to our rapidly-expanding base of customers.

What will be the purpose of the branch office in Doha? Will IBM be recruiting many nationals from the universities here?The new office will support IBM’s customers on the ground with a closer physical point-of-presence and provide a local support

function for consultants, R&D teams and other resources IBM may deploy to support projects and customers here. It is our hope that the office will serve to provide an effec-tive interface between IBM and its regional and global resources and the Qatari mar-ket, bringing together local knowledge and presence with worldwide capabilities.

It is important to IBM not only to recruit wherever possible from local markets, but also to create new opportunities by opening up initiatives that help in training, devel-opment and research. For instance, IBM is working on ground-breaking research and development projects in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt that are seeing young nationals from those countries working together with IBM’s own R&D teams to create new intel-lectual property and innovation that is truly driven by local resources.

How important is the region for IBM? Do you see growth opportunities here?We definitely acknowledge the opportu-nities available in this region in terms of growth and prosperity, and this region is a vital part of our overall growth market strat-egy. We see the Middle East as a rapidly-expanding market and are thus committed

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iiBM recently openeD a new BrancH office in DoHa anD rory coen caugHt up witH its general Manager for MiDDle east anD pakistan, aMr refaat, to Discuss its plans in tHe country.

iBmopens office in doHa

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to supporting this growth through actively strengthening our ability to provide high-value solutions to our clients and partners.

In fact, our plans for the Middle East are part of a greater initiative to expand IBM into growth markets across the globe. IBM currently has over 240 branch offices in over 60 growth market countries, and we expect to increase revenue share from growth mar-kets from 22% today to around 30% by 2015. To speak more specifically about the region, we are working with numerous custom-ers in a wide range of market sectors rang-ing from banking to telecommunications, education to healthcare and government to energy development. We’re also working on a number of research and development ini-tiatives across the region, including major investments with universities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Additionally, we’ve worked closely with governments in the region on initiatives such as e-government and the Smarter Planet.

Have you any further expansion plans for the country/region?We plan to announce more branch office openings in the region throughout the next quarters. Earlier, we announced the open-ing of branch offices in Mauritius, Angola, Senegal and Tanzania. These expansions are all in line with our geo-expansion strat-egy, and we intend to continue our heavy investment in the MENA region.

What services and solutions are you of-fering to Qatari businesses currently?IBM is working with a number of customers in Qatar in the banking, finance, aviation, transport and logistics and government spaces, as well as supporting a number of diverse business customers together with its general marketing and sales representa-tive in Qatar. We have seen strong demand for consulting and business service offer-ings from customers in Qatar, and moving forward we expect this demand to continue and deepen.

Where is IBM heading at the moment? What is R&D working on?A major focus of IBM today is the IBM Smarter Planet, which essentially aims at using the large amounts of data available to us and infusing it into the systems and pro-cesses of everyday life in an effort to make the world work more efficiently. We want to change the way things work – things that today we wouldn’t recognise as computers,

such as cars, waterways, roadways and pow-er grids. We’re working with customers and institutions across the world to implement services and solutions which are in line with the Smarter Planet and Smarter Cities vision. In addition to that, we’re continuing with our focus on business analytics, cloud computing and geo-expansion. The four of these initiatives combined are key focuses of our 2015 roadmap.

In terms of R&D, IBM has a number of R&D initiatives in the region, including some major investments with universities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

One initiative in particular that we are proud of is our collaboration with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia’s national research and development organisation, aimed at re-ducing water and energy costs by creating a water desalination plant powered by solar electricity. We’ve also worked with KACST in developing nanomembrane technol-ogy on which the desalination process will hinge.

How is IBM working with the Qatari government to push the QNV 2030?As Qatar continues to experience expo-nential growth, IBM looks to support the 2030 vision of shifting to a competitive knowledge-based economy through ex-panding unparalleled expertise in IT ser-vices and solutions into Qatar. Our aim is to build relationships in Qatar with the goal of strengthening organisations and helping

businesses achieve their objectives. Our Smarter Planet initiative can also

support the QNV 2030, as our technology and expertise can help to make government and business operations smarter. This means that citizens can be provided with convenient access to necessary and timely information; the flow of everyday life in cit-ies across the globe can be managed as well as the flow of information between govern-ment departments.

How important is the IT sector to this vision?Qatar is one of the fastest-growing econo-mies in the world and is well on its way to fulfilling the economic development goals outlined by the QNV 2030. The ICT sec-tor plays a critical role in diversifying the economy in the sense that it serves to sup-port infrastructure development and so-cial development initiatives. With signifi-cant spending on IT predicted to continue throughout the GCC region, we are optimis-tic about the long-term social and economic benefits of these investments.

Qatar in particular has placed strong em-phasis on the ICT sector, as it has played a key role in the major projects underway in Qatar. Whether these projects are related to the telecommunications industry, oil and gas, banking, or any other major sec-tor, ICT is always taken into consideration. In a sense, we can say that the ICT sec-tor is at the centre of the development of the nation

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we Have seen strong DeManD for consulting anD Busi-

ness service offerings froM custoMers in qatar, anD

Moving forwarD we expect tHis DeManD to continue anD

Deepen.

AMr refAAT

general manager for middle eaST and pakiSTan

ibm