DUBAI Internet City (DIC), the Mena region’s largest IT cluster, and Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ), the world’s first free zone dedicated to the outsourcing industry, announced growth of 15 per cent as 160 new companies registered in the business parks throughout 2012.

“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,” a joint GIC and DOZ statement said.

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.’’

Dubai Outsource Zone also witnessed growth throughout 2012. A recent DOZ industry report titled ‘Outsourcing in the Mena Region,’ reveals that Dubai now counts for 90 per cent 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.