UAE leads Middle East Engineering Software Demand

According to the latest figures from engineering and enterprise IT applications market research and analysis consultant, Cambashi, in 2007 the Middle East market for engineering applications software grew 10%. The UAE will enjoy the region’s fastest growth. Cambashi forecasts that growth there will increase from 10% in 2007 to 13% in 2010. These figures include Cambashi’s estimate for software imported to the Middle Eastern region from India and Pakistan but exclude the market in Iran and Iraq, which this year proved too difficult to research.

Israel represents the biggest Middle Eastern engineering applications market, with 40% of the whole region’s expenditure. In manufacturing engineering applications it accounts for 60% of the regions spending. Surprisingly, it also accounts for slightly over half of all geospatial engineering spending.

Apart from Israel, it can be quite difficult to establish the location of software’s final user. A complex network of intermediaries and agents facilitates cross border trading. However, Cambashi estimates that the UAE is the second biggest market accounting for 29% of the region’s engineering applications spending. The researcher also estimates that 75% of the demand in the UAE is for software serving architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) disciplines, compared with a world-wide proportion of 38%.

Peter Thorne, managing director at Cambashi, commented, “Today, the Middle East is more diverse and sophisticated than most observers recognize. There is a bias towards large scale engineering rather than manufacturing but all kinds of engineering activities can be found.”