ALKHOBAR, 27 January — Hats off once again to the United Arab Emirates. Tanmia, the UAE’s National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority, has announced a new Internet-based manpower project. Tanmia is partnering with IBM in a major outsourcing deal to develop, structure and deploy a web-based manpower e-marketplace though the IBM e-hosting center at Dubai Internet City (DIC).
As a first phase of a long-term strategy to create productive employment opportunities for nationals, Tanmia is establishing a manpower e-marketplace to bring UAE citizens seeking employment together with employers looking to hire suitable UAE nationals through the "anywhere, anytime" power of the Internet. Job seekers can post their CVs via the web, and search for available vacancies, while employers will be able to advertise positions and access a rich database of candidates, searching for those with the qualifications and skills needed for their businesses.
The system is also designed to facilitate the delivery of training and career counseling, and allows Tanmia to analyze data and study trends for the production of studies on employment issues for government and educational bodies.
"Our country’s growth is related to the productive employment of our citizens," said Matar Al-Tayer, UAE minister of labor and social affairs and chairman of Tanmia. "The ability to efficiently place the right skills in the right job at the right time will lead to UAE citizens’ increased contribution to various sectors of the national economy. The technology increases the efficiency of manpower development, and the information analyzed by our labor market researchers becomes a valuable tool for policy decisions for the future."
"IBM and DIC are ideal partners for this project," said Yousuf Abdulghani, director general of Tanmia. "Complete outsourcing of software development, as well as secure hosting with operational support round the clock allows Tanmia to focus and excel in its business. We will continue our mission to develop the skills and capabilities of our citizens. The new service goes well beyond the traditional job placement services by identifying and providing training and career guidance, helping job seekers match their skills to the labor market, and employers locate suitable national talent."
So now that we’ve had a little upbeat news, let’s get ready to reach for the headache remedies. The Arab Advisers Group is to reveal new research into the infrastructure readiness of Arab states for e-government at a major conference in Dubai on Feb. 3. During the Middle East e-Government Forum, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, organized by the Institute for International Research (IIR), Jawad Abbassi, president of Arab Advisers Group, will examine the effects of liberalization and privatization on infrastructure and e-government initiatives.
"Morocco is the clear market leader in liberalization followed by countries like Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon," he said. "The Gulf states are still monopoly countries with some level of competition in Kuwait (Internet and GSM) and Saudi Arabia (Internet). Clearly, countries that are facing economic hardships have been the leaders in recognizing the role of telecommunication liberalization in attracting investment and upgrading their once-dilapidated communications infrastructure."
The Arab world is bandwidth starved. Up-to-date primary research conducted by the Arab Advisers Group shows that more than 740,000 Internet subscribers in eight Arab countries share a total Internet bandwidth of no more than 777 mbps. The combined Internet bandwidth of the eight Arab countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Syria and the UAE pales in comparison to what Internet users have available to them in Europe and America. The combined bandwidth of these eight Arab markets is equal to that of just 518 cable modem subscribers in the United States!
"In looking at what the Arab Advisers Group refers to as the "Regional Bandwidth Index," it may be noted that Internet users in Morocco, Egypt, Oman and Jordan have better bandwidth availability than those in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria. The most bandwidth deprived of the countries is Syria with a regional bandwidth index score of 0.19. Egypt topped the rankings with a regional bandwidth index of 2.11, according to Abbassi.
The Arab Advisers Group calculated the Regional Bandwidth Index by dividing each country’s share of the total Internet bandwidth available by its share of the total subscribers base. Results of more than one indicate a better than regional average bandwidth per subscriber. The higher the index the better the bandwidth situation in the country compared to the region. The index results are tied to the actual countries surveyed and analyzed.
The Arab Advisers Group research linked the intra-regional variance to the different dynamics of competition and liberalization in the Arab countries. However, they found that in general, low Internet bandwidth in all of the countries is a direct result of high costs.
"Overall, Internet bandwidth costs in the region remain at much higher rates than those in the United States or even Europe," Abbassi explained. "Being small operators on the global scene, the ISPs/operators still lack any "peering" arrangements with international backbone operators. As such they continue to pay the complete cost of full-circuit connections to the international Internet backbone operators. Add to this, the existence of cross subsidization (local rates by international rates) by monopoly operators and the cost becomes even higher."
The statistics in this research are based on extensive primary research in all of the markets analyzed. The Arab Advisers Group is a specialized research and consulting company based in Amman, Jordan with offices, analysts, and affiliates in London, and various countries of the Arab world. The company’s team of analysts produce a subscription only strategic research service that provides its clients with country by country projections and landscape analysis reports covering the Internet, telecommunication, and technology industries in the Arab world. The service also includes trend reports that analyze major trends and outlines best practices and strategies in Internet, telecommunication, and technology in the Arab world, and periodic research notes analyzing major events and developments.
With liberalization and privatization steps gathering momentum across the region the Arab Advisers Group predicts an easing of the situation as international bandwidth rates in these markets come down and ISPs expand their international bandwidth without extra costs. Hopefully this will happen by 2005. Until that time the Internet and telecommunications services in the region will continue to hold back development.
Saudi Telecom Company remains the only packet switched data provider in the Kingdom; a situation expected to continue until at least 2003. This monopoly over datacomm services has resulted in a market with sub-optimal development.
"Saudi Arabia’s GSM growth has been hindered by a monopoly operator keen on maximizing revenues. The impending, and quite belated, introduction of prepaid GSM service in the Kingdom will take the growth curve to unprecedented levels. The Arab Advisers Group expects the market to grow at an annual rate of 45 percent for the years 2000-2005," stated Shahin Shahin, Arab Advisers Group’s Saudi Arabia analyst.
In the Kingdom’s Internet market there are 30 licensed ISPs, 28 of which are currently operational. ISPs are connected to the ATM network provided by Saudi Telecom, the only PSTN, GSM, Datacomm, and International connectivity provider in the Kingdom. Therefore, Saudi Telecom provides the international bandwidth, which goes through the Internet Services Unit (ISU), a department of King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The ISU is in charge of the Saudi Internet gateway, which closely monitors access and also filters and blocks undesired sites for end users. It should be noted that there are no future plans on the ISU’s part to issue new ISP licenses, so as to encourage ISP consolidation.
The Arab Advisers Group expects the Internet market in Saudi Arabia to grow substantially throughout the coming few years, exceeding 1.5 million subscribers by 2006, a penetration rate of more than six percent. This is a low penetration rate compared to neighboring Gulf states. Nevertheless, it will be the largest Internet subscriber base in the Arab world.
The Saudi Internet market remains under-provisioned with international bandwidth. In early 2001 (year end 2000) the country’s total Internet international bandwidth was STM-1 (155.05 Mbps), translating into a smallish bandwidth per account of 0.620 Kbps. Recent rate reductions however, have improved the country’s total bandwidth situation, which now exceeds 3 STM-1. Demand for more bandwidth will be led by the uptake of broadband and leased line services. The great pent-up demand for broadband services in the Kingdom has not been properly served yet. Therefore, the Arab Advisers Group believes that Internet revenues in the future will derive from the non-PSTN based Internet access types of wireless Internet and broadband Internet.
The Arab Advisers Group feels that there are strong indications that the Arab world is poised for a major round of privatization and liberalization milestones in telecommunications that will spur growth in regional electronic government initiatives. Increased competition in the telecommunications sector will bring about better service, expanding consumer bases for communication services and cost-based pricing. Liberalized markets will also enhance global investor interest in the region with greater opportunities to attract international operators, vendors and finance.
With the poor earnings that some mobile handset makers like Nokia and Motorola have been posting lately you might be wondering why they are so optimistic on the future of their industry. Well, cellular phone ownership may be reaching the saturation point in some parts of the developed world but in developing countries the markets are just getting ready to explode.
According to John Yunker, editor, Pyramid Research ([email protected]), mobile services will continue to grow rapidly, adding nearly 800 million subscribers over the next five years. He believes that the mobile revolution is only just getting started.
According to Yunker, Nigeria comes out on top with a growth rate in mobile services of more than 1,000 percent between now and 2006. "This country is on the verge of joining the ranks of sub-Saharan Africa’s five largest markets, in both subscribers and revenues," said Yunker. "Many risks remain, of course, but the growth promises to be dramatic."
If you’re wondering what country came in second place in the mobile growth sweepstakes, Yunker says that honor goes to China, with 500 percent growth. Pyramid Research estimates that just over half of the growth in worldwide mobile services revenues will come out of China where, by 2006, annual mobile revenues will be almost $200 billion annually.