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http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/12/15/10174965.html

12/15/2007 01:18 AM | By Scott Shuey, Chief Business Reporter

Dubai: It could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

A Moroccan delegation, comprising government officials and industry leaders, visited Dubai last week looking for ways to build trade relations.

The country, known more for tourism and Casablanca than technology, is actively looking to expand its image as an information and communication technology (ICT) hub.

Jamal Benhamou, director and CEO of the Federation of Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Offshoring (Apebi), said that while the country may not yet be known for ICT, it plans to use the recent infrastructure upgrades and its position as a trade hub to change. Benhamou said his organisation's objective is to support innovation and development in Morocco's IT sector and increase the number of companies doing business there.

"To be successful, we had to build up step by step, so we built up our original position in North Africa," he said. Then the country had to make sure that an environment existed where international investors could benefit. Now that the country has that, he says, he's trying to spread the word in Dubai.

More than 42,000 people are currently employed in Morocco's ICT sector in 1,500 firms, Apebi claims. The Moroccan ICT sector grew 9.6 per cent to $638.69 million between 2001 and 2006, and the government expects the sector to reach $9 billion by 2012.

It isn't just foreign direct investment (FDI) that Morocco is looking for. Moroccan companies are also eyeing the Gulf region.

"There are so many countries that you can reach so easily from Dubai," said Chemsedine Ould Sidi-Baba, executive manager of Cadtech, a Moroccan company looking to expand into fleet management and tracking services. "Instead of going to other countries, you open an office in Dubai and from there you can reach the entire regional market."

Jyoti Lalchandani, the regional managing director for IDC, which provides analysis for the ICT industry, said there are a number of reasons that make Morocco competitive in the wider regional market, where it competes with countries such as Egypt.

"Morocco definitely understands that it competes with Egypt in terms of some of the localisation and customisation work, or 'Arabisation' as we call it," he said. But the country offers a more mature market, and aims to make it easier for companies to set up shop there, he said.