Exclusive interview snippets with Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice president, regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa are as follows: –
‘Accelerating Your Journey to a Digital-First World’ is the theme of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit 2022. Is the Middle East’s digital journey accelerating toward recovery?
Key economies in the region are definitely on the right path to recovery. IDC’s research shows that overall ICT spending — including telecommunications and IT — across the Middle East (including Egypt and Iran, excluding Israel) is expected to rebound from last year’s contraction of 3.2% to grow 6.2% in 2021. This is a good indicator that the region is on an accelerated recovery journey.
The public sector is playing a major role in driving this growth as governments are rapidly developing new regulations in areas such as cloud, data privacy, and AI to create an environment that encourages the safe use of new technologies and fosters innovation. These efforts have helped in establishing a tech-enabled start-up ecosystem that is expected to scale even further, supported by government and foreign investments.
The pandemic has changed consumer habits worldwide. How did the Middle East region respond to this rapid change?
Changing consumer habits are shaping the responses of governments and businesses alike, as the pandemic has led to an expansion in the depth and breadth of the “digital consumer”. Many consumers across the region have significantly increased their use of online services such as digital banking and government services, telemedicine, and digital payments.
IDC research shows that nearly 50% of organizations across the Middle East have brought their digital road maps forward by about a year – and 14% by two years or more. This indicates that the majority of organizations across the region are accelerating their digital transformation plans to cope with the rapid changes.
2022 marks the 15th edition of the IDC Middle East CIO Summit. What is the main reason behind the success and continuity of this event, and what is new for this 15th installment?
IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services. This means that our events are always driven and backed by data and research. As a result, IDC events in general – and the annual Middle East CIO Summit in particular – have become trusted platforms for insightful and thought-provoking discussions about cutting-edge tech solutions, emerging use cases, and proven strategies for driving success.
The Summit’s highly anticipated 15th edition will address the theme ‘Accelerating Your Journey to a Digital-First World’ and will be hosted in a unique hybrid format. This will see a two-day, in-person event take place in Dubai on February 22-23 at The Ritz-Carlton, DIFC, followed by a one-day digital installment for the wider GCC region on February 24.
The Middle East CIO Summit has long been the region’s largest gathering of CIOs and industry leaders, and as usual, delegates will be able to explore a broad range of themes central to their ongoing digital journeys as we take an in-depth look the very latest developments in technological innovation.
Interview Source received on mail from IDC
