Industry professionals give varying opinions when it comes to discussing markets in the Middle East that are outside the oil and gas segment.
Industry professionals give varying opinions when it comes to discussing markets in the Middle East that are outside the oil and gas segment. Harri Rantanen, Director of Sales in the Middle East at Teleste, pointed out that his company has seen a global increase in demand for solutions which are designed to ensure the safety of citizens.
“The related increase in public spending in the optimization of surveillance of public spaces such as city centers and other areas of high crowd density are another key growth area,” Rantanen said. “At Teleste we have continued to concentrate on strengthening our offering for securing public spaces, critical infrastructure, airports, and public transport. Teleste’s offering is built on our long-term experience in delivering high-level security solutions to these very demanding sectors.”
Marwan Khoury, Regional Marketing Manager for Axis Communications, gave a similar opinion, suggesting that several industries in critical infrastructure and retail are seeing strong growth and are of interest to the company.
“The scope of the projects and the constant demand for solutions in segments such as Retail is driving security and surveillance projects,” Khoury pointed out. “Moreover, there is a growing demand for connected and network devices as customers are embracing the future of technology where cameras will play a central role. End Customers are thinking future, long term, scalability and analytics, while depending on their solutions to get apt results.”
Manufacturers’ opinions apart, there are several systems integrators in the region who are actually seeing strong growth outside the oil and gas vertical. Craig Mackenzie, Country President of Securitas UAE emphasized on Dubai’s presence as an attractive destination for travelers.
“I am seeing what I perceive as growth in the luxury retail and hospitality markets, despite the global economic downturn the UAE and Dubai, in particular, continues to attract visitors who want to spend money on high-end luxury goods and experiences,” said Mackenzie. “This serves equally well those very wealthy individuals, and those seeking a taste of the high life for a once in a lifetime experience. This trend I believe is due in large part to the image that has been created around the fantastic achievements of the UAE in terms of iconic landmarks and upmarket resorts, which when added to the great climate will always attract visitors.”
Bruce Haigh, GM of Specialized & Interactive Systems (SIS), agreed to this, adding that education and health projects are also getting attention. “Hospitality because Dubai especially is pushing tourism and the advent of Expo2020, Education population growth requiring more schools and Health promoting health tourism and population growth,” Haigh said.
Others echoed similar thoughts. Costa Boukouvalas, CEO of AgilityGrid, said that preparing for events like Expo2020 in Dubai and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022, along with strict government regulations is helping growth in areas like commercial property development, public safety and critical infrastructure.
“With the growth of transport infrastructure in the region and increased measures to ensure road safety, surveillance requirements for these areas has also increased,” Boukouvalas said.
Jabir Hameed, CEO of Lantern Software and Security Systems, too gave a similar opinion. “The oil and gas verticals has seen strong growth due to the dip in related costs, whereas verticals such as hospitality, healthcare are showing an upward trend due to the non-oil focus of the region,” Hameed said. “The region has learned that a diverse economy is better and hence an increased focus on the non-oil verticals.”
“Government, education, critical infrastructure, hospitality, commercial and transportation continue to grow strongly,” said Wael Abdallah, GM of Network Information Technology. “Many of the countries in this region has been developing several vertical markets for many years and there is growing need for better security for all of these markets with higher priority to specific sectors.”