The Mangaluru cluster of Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) will organise a business delegation meet at Al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia on September 7 as part of its ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ initiative.

Rohith Bhat, CEO of 99Games and lead industry anchor of Mangaluru cluster of KDEM, will highlight the potential of coastal Karnataka region at the meet. Sanjiv Gupta, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KDEM, will introduce Karnataka and KDEM to the participants at the meet.

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Bhat told businessline that the intent of organising this event in Saudi Arabia is to invite companies from that region to consider opening offices in Mangaluru for providing IT, BPM and engineering design services to their parent offices in Saudi.

Saudi’s strong vision

Stating that Saudi economy is booming, he said Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Gulf region. The leaders from Saudi Arabia have a strong vision to grow the economy beyond its dependency on crude oil.

Added to this, Saudi Arabia has a lot of people from the Karnataka coast in the managerial and decision making positions.

Mentioning that coastal Karnataka region offers great quality talent at a fraction of the cost, he said it is a best situation for both Saudi Arabia and India.

Silicon beach of India

The KDEM delegation from Mangaluru cluster will include companies such as 99Games, Novigo, Glowtouch, Petrocon and Mikro Grapheo, and organisations such as Nasscom, Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Indian Industry (Mangaluru chapter), and TiE-Mangaluru.

In a recent interaction with businessline, Bhat had said ‘Silicon beach of India’ (which includes coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada) is brimming with talent, energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit.

‘Silicon beach of India’ produces more than 10,000 engineers every year from more than 25 engineering colleges. The region has more than 15 incubators and 125-plus start-ups across fintech, SaaS, gaming and health-tech sectors, he said.

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