DOHA: The GCC electronic manufacturing industry, which includes computer products, has witnessed remarkable growth during the last few years. With a compound annual growth rate of 4.8 percent, industry’s estimated value increased to $476m in 2015 from $395m in 2011.
The industry accounted for only a small percentage (0.12 percent) of the total investments, estimated at $393.7bn, in the GCC industrial sector in 2015, said The Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) in a report yesterday.
The computer and electronic products manufacturing industry sector is still relatively a new industry in the GCC industrial sector and it is still in its early stages despite the presence of a huge domestic market in the Gulf countries, report added.
The past few years were marked by an upward global trend for the establishment and improvement of communication networks, increase of the number of users of mobile phones, transfer of information devices and the Internet.
This trend has resulted significantly and clearly in a growing demand for computer and electronic equipment, since they are considered as high-tech industrial products and among the technical industries constituting the backbone of the knowledge-based economy and relying constantly on technological advances and advanced studies and research.
Computer Electronic products manufacturing industry is characterised by the wide range of uses in modern day lifestyles such as electronics, computers, communication devices and equipment, software, semiconductors and measuring and control equipment.
GOIC Secretary General Abdulaziz bin Hamad Al Ageel (pictured) shed light on the urgent need for the GCC countries to elaborate national plans and policies to strengthen the enabling environment for the information and communications technology that will increase the private sector investments in the information and communications technology like computers and electronic devices manufacturing industry.
He said it is also important to promote joint investments and cooperation between GCC countries and to launch research and development projects relating to this industry on the regional level.
In addition to that, GCC countries should focus on computer and electronic equipment to manage various activities related to economy, trade, production, finance, marketing and human resource management as well as education and training. Therefore, they become the pillar of the strategy aiming at achieving economic sustainable development in the GCC countries, he added.
According to GOIC data, Saudi Arabia is taking lead among the rest of the GCC countries in investing in computer and electronic products manufacturing industry.
These investments amounted to $376m in 2015, accounting for about three quarters of the total GCC investments in the computer and electronic products manufacturing Industry in the Gulf. The UAE ranked second with 14 percent of the investments.
The investments in computer and electronic devices manufacturing industry were distributed in 2015 among 75 factories out of 16,890 factories in the GCC industrial sector, which represents 0.4 percent of the total number of factories.
Computer and electronic devices factories showed an increase by 9.6 percent a year between 2011 and 2015.
The computer and electronic devices industry created 7,147 job opportunities in the GCC markets in 2015, which represents 0.4 percent of the total job opportunities in the gulf industrial sector amounting to 162,800 job offers.
