Mumbai/Ahmedabad: Gujarat Electronics & Software Industries Association (GESIA) today signed a memorandum of understanding(MoU) with ICT Davao, Inc of Philippines at the Indo-ASEAN IT BSM, a meet for IT SMEs of Gujarat.

As par the MoU, the two parties will collaborate by sending delegations to the other country, assist in trade fairs and buyer-seller meets, organise and participate in seminars and provide advisory support for projects. "The state has a robust IT infrastructure, space applications centre, developed telecommunication facilities and state-of-the-art security policy. There are 17 IT SEZs in various stages of development in Gujarat,” Ravi Saxena, principal secretary, department of science & technology (DST), government of Gujarat said at the occasion.

“My association with the Indian software industry is 10 years old. But, my country’s ties with India go beyond software. Our movement for people’s power that began in 1986 was inspired by Gujarat’s own Mahatma Gandhi,” said Samuel R. Matunog, president & CEO of Segworks Technologies Corporations of Philippines who signed the MoU together with Nirav Shah, president of GESIA.

There have been many initiatives in the past at the bilateral level and at the level of ASEAN countries to deepen the cooperation in IT sector. But, not on this scale. The visiting delegates are IT buyers from ASEAN region, representing countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and others, Shah pointed out. The Indo-ASEAN BSM is expected to unlock the huge potential for business opportunities between the IT SMEs of Gujarat and the SMEs of other ASEAN countries. In the last decade, Gujarat has emerged as a major hub for IT SMEs.

The event was sponsored by Gujarat Informatics Ltd (GIL), a government of Gujarat company that is a nodal agency for IT development in the state, and the state IT department.