ABU DHABI, Oct 28, 2002 (WAM) --Dubai Internet City (DIC) has announced its first-ever participation as an exhibitor at the 2003 edition of CeBIT, the world's biggest trade fair for IT, Telecommunications, Software and Services, in Hannover from March 12 to 19. "Our participation will be on the lines of our participation in the Gitex Dubai 2002 where we had a DIC Community Pavilion. We are hopeful about our presence in the CeBIT being fruitful to us and our partners. More details about our participation will be announced soon," Wadi Ahmed, Marketing Director of DIC, said yesterday. He said the DIC's participation in the CeBIT would help attract more German companies to the emirate to tap the huge opportunities in the ICT markets in the Middle East. " Our participation in this year's CeBIT was of a pilot nature, according to a report in +Khaleej Times.+ We signed a MoU with Bitcom of Germany that has helped bring more German companies to the DIC," he remarked. Deutsche Messe AG, the organisers of CeBIT, are expecting more than 7,100 companies from 59 countries as exhibitors for the next year's trade fair which will be held in 27 halls located on over 380,000 square metres of net exhibition space. A total of 2,805 companies from overseas have already registered for the event, of which 1,162 are based in Asia and Australia - more than 41 per cent of the entire international contingent. Last year'sevent attracted over 137,000 international visitors from every continent, including an impressive 26,000 from Asia. " CeBIT Hannover provides a complete overview of the latest ICT technologies and provides orientation on where the sector is heading, featuring new trends at their very inception. The much-hoped-for upswing in the second half of 2002 has been slow to materialize, and the industry is now setting its hopes on the first quarter of 2003," said Detlev Rossa, Manager for Public Relations, Press and Corporate PR at Deutsche Messe AG. He said major themes of CeBIT include broadband, mobile communications, Wireless LAN, IT Security, Storage software, and E-government. A two-day international summit of experts for the captains of the ICT industry will take place prior to the show. Another innovation for CeBIT 2003 is the Planet Reseller, a speciality retailing centre tailored to the retail segment of the ICT industry. WAM-VV
