After a successful participation in the global trade exhibition at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover, Germany, recently, Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information technology sector are bullish about making their presence felt in global trade and exhibitions. Led by the industry association, Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association (GESIA), the SMEs are exploring more global opportunities to enhance IT exports from the state.
Hence, after participating in trade expos in Dubai and Germany, GESIA is exploring places such as West Asia, Taiwan, Barcelona, Brazil and Canada to begin with. What is more, by enhancing their global presence through trade expo participation and delegation visits, GESIA anticipates a rise of 40 per cent in software exports by Gujarat-based IT SMEs.
"The response was overwhelming at CeBIT and each of the participating firms from Gujarat got leads and some even signed contracts. The focus was also more on initiating and strengthening partnerships than creating just customers. This helped in branding Gujarat as an upcoming IT hub," said Pankaj Shah, president of GESIA, who led the delegation of 16-odd IT SMEs.
In the immediate future, GESIA is looking at participating in IT and electronics trade expos in West Asia and Taiwan. It is also in talks with the Canadian government for delegation visits.
"Apart from participation in global exhibitions, we are also looking at increasing delegation visits to countries. We are in the process of taking an IT SME delegation from Gujarat to Canada. Recently, after the CeBIT expo, we took delegations to European markets such as the Netherlands, Belgium and France," Shah added.
According to Vishal Vasu, director and chief technology officer of Dev Information Technology Pvt. Ltd., one of the IT SMEs from Gujarat that participated in CeBIT, the participants received enquiries in areas like mobile application development, web application development, IT service management, and enterprise solutions, among others.
"If we want to portray Gujarat as the next IT hub, we will have to take companies out of Gujarat and the country. Gujarat is now equally proficient in the IT industry," Vasu added.
Meanwhile, it needs to be mentioned here that India's exports of electronics goods, software and related services to West Asia totalled $3.519 billion in 2012-13. It is estimated that electronics goods exports to West Asian countries in 2012-13 amounted to $1.667 billion, while exports of software and related services to that region amounted to $1.852 billion.
However, IT and software exports from Gujarat are currently worth Rs 1,400 crore, which the industry body anticipates will rise by 40 per cent due to an enhanced global presence on the part of IT SMEs from the state.
