MENA governments are anticipated to spend a total of $13.3 billion in 2022 on information technology (IT) sector, with most budgets going to telecom services ($3.9 billion), IT services ($3.13 billion), and software ($2.56 billion).
They are are set to increase their spending towards digitalization efforts in 2022, enforcing policies on various sectors like telecommunications, healthcare, transportation, smart cities, and sustainability. All of these contribute in moving towards the next phase of the fourth industrial revolution and more growth opportunities of cloud in the region.
Gartner forecasts that the worldwide government IT spending will reach $565.7 billion in 2022, an increase of 5% from 2021. In line with this, global segments are expected to increase except for telecom services as well as internal services. Continuing the trend from 2021, the software is forecasted to record the strongest growth across all segments in 2022.
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Relatively, MENA CIOs are expected to spend the most on cloud application services (SaaS) this year. These include business intelligence applications; content services; customer experience and relationship management; and supply chain.
A testimony to MENA governments’ ongoing efforts, the UAE adopts its digital economy strategy, while Bahrain continues to develop its telecoms sector to drive digitization in the Kingdom. Also recently, Egypt’s NTRA and Saudi’s CITC have signed an MoU to cooperate and exchange expertise in several areas, including smart cities, radio spectrum management, and capacity building in digital transformation.
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