Overwhelmed at CeBIT says NICTAA

Afghanistan was set to a great start on its first day at the CeBIT 2008 exhibition. Visitors queued outside the comparatively small Afghan cubical as soon as the exhibition doors were open. CeBIT, is regarded throughout the world as the largest and most influential marketplace for ICT, the exhibition attracts participants, buyers and sellers from 100 countries who gather in Hanover, Germany each spring to discover and promote the latest trends of the digital age.
Four leading software development and IT companies from Afghanistan are attending the trade fair from March 4-9: XALA Technologies, NETLINKS, Paiwastoon Networking Services and Trend Com. Their participation is organized by the National ICT Association of Afghanistan (NICTAA) and sponsored by USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED) project.

A visitor who traveled from South America to the exhibition said, “It is really interesting that Afghanistan is able to compete with the world market in software outsourcing so quickly, especially with what we hear and see on TV about Afghanistan, this comes as a complete surprise to me. I would be very interested to take the information back to my company directors to hear their opinion on outsourcing our software development to Afghanistan.”

The four companies managed to secure business contacts and established grounds for possible contracts with major players in the IT sector from across the world. One of such companies was DataBase-Bank (DBB) who offers the first Data backup appliance secured against all major risks such as fire, flood, theft, human errors, and breakdown of the information system. Asmat Ullah, CEO of XALA Technologies said, “This kind of data protection boxes are of great use in a place such as Afghanistan where disaster occurrences are almost regular and the security of data through such a secure system can be vital.” DBB is currently negotiating an exclusive deal with the Afghan companies at CeBIT to establish a base for the Central and South Asian market in Afghanistan.

Omar Mansoor Ansari, president of NICTAA said, “We are overwhelmed by the keen interest shown by visitors and the hard work put in by the exhibiting team. We still have five more days to go way to go and I hope they will be as fruitful as today if not more.”