Dubai: The Iran ICT (information and communication technology) market is expected to grow around 30-40 per cent in the next two to three years and become the second fastest-growing market in the region over the next few years and beyond after Saudi Arabia, once the sanctions are lifted.
“If the Iranian market opens after the sanctions, it will be a good opportunity for lot of international and regional companies to go in directly and set up direct operations,” said Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC’s group vice-president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
A lot of channel partners doing business with Iran right now will set up “more formal operations”.
He foresees Iran to become the second fastest growing market in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) after 2018.
“We see a significant investment on Iran infrastructure and in every sector of the economy. A lot of the key focus will be on building infrastructure in the first phase and expect to see an explosion in system infrastructure software, storage and cloud based solutions, and IT services,” he said.
With Dubai being a major re-export market for Iran, he said the emirate will feel the impact on the long run and not on the short term.