The In5 innovation hub aimed at supporting the development of the ICT start-up ecosystem in Dubai was launched by Dubai Internet City (DIC), the Middle East and North's Africa's largest ICT community.

Sir Edward Lister, the Deputy Mayor of London, has visited the UAE as part of a business delegation seeking to develop closer partnerships and synergies between the UK's Tech City, a media and technology hub based in East London, and Dubai Internet City (DIC), Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ) and Dubai Media City (DMC), three of TECOM Investments' 10 interconnected and industry focused business parks.

The Deputy Mayor was accompanied by Joanna Shields, Chief Executive, Tech City Investment Organisation; David Slater, Director of International Trade '&' Investment, London '&' Partners; Glen Manchester, Chief Executive, Thunderhead; Pru Ashby, Head of Partnerships, Tech City Investment Organisation; Ben Gascoigne, Private Secretary to the Mayor; Edward Hobart, Her Majesty's Consul General to Dubai; and Karen Williams, Deputy Director, UKTI. Sir Edward Lister and the UK delegation met with Malek Al Malek, Managing Director, DIC and DOZ, and Mohammad Abdullah, Managing Director of DMC.

In addition to meeting with senior directors from TECOM, the delegation, which includes a number of leading UK company executives,also took a tour of the facilities and visited companies located in DIC and DMC. Commenting, Dr Al Rustamani, Group CEO of TECOM Investments, said: "We are delighted that the Deputy Mayor and his high profile delegation from London have come to Dubai to witness first-hand the thriving business communities found within TECOM's business parks. "Dubai Internet City, Dubai Outsource Zone and Dubai Media City were all pioneering initiatives in the development of the GCC's digital and media industries.

By creating industry specific infrastructure and business environments geared towards growth, they have been very successful in attracting investment and companies from right across the world, including many well-known British companies, such as BBC Worldwide, British Telecom, Bell Pottinger, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Sky News, Schlumberger Technologies Operating Limited, Guinness World Records, Infor (United Kingdom) Limited amongst others." During the meeting, Malek Al Malek and Joanna Shields, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to confirm the common desire of the two organisations to promote and develop trade, inward investment and business relations between London and Dubai. Such goals will be achieved through sharing of best practices and ideas as well the provision of support services for London businesses setting up in Dubai and Dubai businesses setting up in London. Joanna Shields, CEO of Tech City and the UK's Business Ambassador for Digital Industries, said: "Innovation and entrepreneurship are the engines of economic growth.

Dubai Internet City pioneered the concept of a technology cluster in the region, and in just over a decade it has managed to become a global magnet for some of the world's fastest growing companies. Dubai and London share a common commitment to creating the best place to imagine, start and grow a business. I'm very excited to return here to share our success and learn from Dubai Internet City's success. Together we will build a bridge that will enable entrepreneurs and the businesses they create to grow internationally." Following the signing of the MoU, Malek Al Malek added: "Championing partnerships and closer ties between companies in TECOM's business parks and businesses in Tech City is absolutely vital for the future economic growth in both Dubai and London.

This MoU reflects our desire to strengthen our trade and knowledge links with the UK with a specific focus on digital industries and technology. We look forward to building a strong relationship with the UK government and businesses and to working in closer collaboration with Tech City in the future." The UAE shares a healthy bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom covering different trade, and investment, cultural and other interests. Strengthening ties further; Governments of both countries established the UK-UAE Joint Economic Committee, and have set a target of increasing trade between both countries by 60% by 2015. Mutual business opportunities and relations have contributed significantly to the development of each other's economies.

After its successful rounds in Beirut, Amman, and Riyadh, the ArabNet Developer Tournament will showcase the UAE's most talented web and mobile programmers in a series of coding challenges at the Dubai Round on April 20th 2013.

The competition, sponsored in the UAE by Du and hosted by Dubai Internet City, seeks to highlight young technical talent across the region and connect them with job opportunities in the growing digital sector. "The ArabNet Developer Tournament will shine the spotlight on the hidden heroes of the digital industry - the developers who build every website we visit and app we use," stated Omar Christidis, the Founder & CEO of ArabNet.

Speaking ahead of the event, Majed Al Suwaidi, Director of Business Development at Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource Zone, said, "By hosting this competition; we hope to be able to give local talent the support they need to take their ideas to market.

In line with this, the in5 innovation hub hosted in DIC is committed to supporting entrepreneurs, programmers and start-ups from the early stages of idea creation through their idea implementation up until the commercial launch of their product by providing infrastructural support as well as a dynamic and engaging working environment which provides the tools need to compete in the global marketplace." With $124m in investments in IT startups in MENA in 2012, the digital sector in the Middle East is booming, but the difficulty of locating technical talent remains one of the main bottlenecks for its growth.

Companies today are struggling to identify the developers that they need to build their business. A recent survey by Dice.com, a leading technology career site, concluded that the top three most difficult vacancies to fill in the U.S. are developers, twice or three times as difficult as other vacancies, according to hiring managers. ArabNet's regional Developer Tournament addresses this challenge by offering a platform for connecting developers with career opportunities, either as the technical co-founders for new startups, or the leads of technical teams in established companies.

The Dubai tournament will kick off at 8:00 AM on April 20th in Conference Halls 1 & 2 of Dubai Knowledge Village. The tournament will consist of four heats; it will last for 12 hours, at the end of which the winners for Dubai will be announced. The top four winners from each of the Beirut, Amman, Riyadh, and Dubai tournaments will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to represent their countries in the final championship round at the ArabNet Digital Summit this June. Developers can register now to participate in the Dubai Developer Tournament free of charge.

Dubai Internet City (DIC) announced the launch of the DIC Football League 2013, the first event of its kind to be introduced by the business park. The tournament follows the success of the Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ) Cricket Cup and DIC's annual Yogafest which took place earlier this year drawing in thousands of enthusiasts, and serves to demonstrate DIC's commitment by encouraging a healthy work life balance across the business community.

The league will take place across two consecutive weekends on April 13 and on April 19-20 and will see 32 teams made up of DIC-based companies compete head to head for the winners' trophy. Each team will play five-a-side with an additional five substitutes, all hoping to make a pass at the winning goal. Ahdaaf Indoor Football Courts will play host to the three-day community league. There will also be greatprizes offered by Canon, Blackberry, HP and Sony Mobile.

Speaking ahead of the league, Majed Al Suwaidi, Director of Business Development at Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource Zone said: "In addition to the world class services that we provide those working in in our community, we strive to promote a healthy lifestyle across our business communities.

We are committed to enhancing relationships with companies based in our business parks, and the DIC Football League presents a great opportunity for employees to meet, get challenged and have fun in a more social environment." "Our two recent sporting events, the DOZ Cricket Cup and Yogafest 2013, drew thousands of participants, highlighting the potential of business zones to bring together members of the community.

We very much aim for the league to become an annual sporting event." Since the year 2000, DIC has successfully developed a prosperous ecosystem for technology organisations and today is home to Fortune 500 listed companies and multinationals as well as some of the region's most dynamic and successful technology SMEs and start-ups from all elements of the ICT value chain.

Dubai Internet City (DIC), the MENA region's largest IT cluster, and Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ), the world's first freezone dedicated to the outsourcing industry, announced growth of 15% as 160 new companies registered in the business parks throughout 2012. The continued development and growth of DIC and DOZ falls in line with the vision of H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of developing the emirate as a global hub for the technology industry which is set to continue into 2013. 

According to a recent report by Gartner Inc, a leading information technology research and advisory company, ICT expenditure in the Middle East is forecast to reach $192bn in 2013, a 5.5% increase from 2012. Key sectors that saw new additions within Dubai Internet City in 2012 include internet and multimedia software, telecommunication and IT services. More than 60 business partners including Fortune 500 companies MasterCard, GE, Qualcomm, EMC and Google significantly increased their presence in DIC owing to the high quality of services and infrastructure that DIC provides. Malek Al Malek, Managing Director of Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource Zone, said, "2012 was a particularly strong year for our cluster.

Not only did we welcome some of the industry's biggest players such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Interglobe, we also saw the expansion of existing partners." DIC has been one of the forerunners in carrying forward Dubai's vision of transitioning into a knowledge-based economy with its access to an extensive talent pool from all over the world. Throughout 2012, DIC has also increasingly turned its attention to supporting and nurturing small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), and encouraging the development of innovative ideas. Mr Al Malek added, "The support and nurturing of SMEs and entrepreneurs has also been a key area of focus for us in 2012 and will continue to be in 2013. 

We are extremely optimistic about the ongoing growth of the SME sector in the region. Since the year 2000, Dubai Internet City has successfully developed a prosperous ecosystem for technology companies. We have created incentives, eliminated the barriers for SMEs to set up, and through In5, an innovation hub which aims to foster and promote entrepreneurship, and FirstSteps business centre, we have striven to ensure entrepreneurs get the support they need to take their ideas to market." "Our latest report, the 'Role of Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the Development of the ICT Industry' reveals that, going into 2013, the UAE is one of the few countries in the Middle East and North Africa that is truly investing in innovation via its various incubation programmes and funding tie-ups with international governments and private equity firms," he added.

The year witnessed the development of the In5 innovation hub. Hosted in DIC, In5 aims to foster and promote entrepreneurship and innovation in order to develop a technology start-up ecosystem in Dubai. The hub provides infrastructure, support and a dynamic and engaging working environment to entrepreneurs from the early stages of idea creation through to idea implementation and the commercial launch of a product or service. Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ) also witnessed growth throughout 2012. A recent DOZ industry report titled 'Outsourcing in the MENA Region,' reveals that Dubai now counts for 90% of the UAE's outsourcing industry, and unlike other outsourcing hubs around the world, DOZ is a cross-sector zone catering to all types of outsourcing processes. The business park is comprised of shared services organisations such as airlines, banks and hospitality companies; business process outsourcing (BPOs) and pure outsourcing third party companies. This unique structure allows companies to base in all their outsourcing activities in one centralised community.

In late 2012, DIC was also one of the parties that signed the UAE eCommerce Working Group Memorandum of Understanding with the Executive Office of the Government of Dubai at the event which aims to propose solutions and policy recommendations to create a more conducive environment to help existing UAE-based business become eCommerce capable. Showcasing their commitment to ICT and outsourcing industries in the UAE and the wider region, both DIC and DOZ participated in several industry events in 2012 including GITEX, 3rd Annual 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Microsoft Open Door, Datacenter Technologies Academy 2012, 5th Annual Managed Services Growth Markets event and Middle East Call Center 2012.