Partnership for tech, employment: L&T’s technology services arm LTIMindtree’s joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s Aramco will replicate India's blueprint to develop a skill bank in the Arab nation while boosting female employment there, LTIMindtree President and Executive Board Member Sudhir Chaturvedi said.

The two companies have come together for a joint venture, which will form a next-generation digital and IT services company in Saudi Arabia and provide for technology services to digitise the Saudi market and develop a local talent pool over time. 

LTIMindtree’s partnership with Aramco Digital will form a next-generation digital and IT services company in Saudi Arabia. 

"We are going to make sure that like we do in India, wherein we hire both experienced professionals as well as freshers from universities and then train them into the process. Essentially, we will replicate that model there, obviously with nuances, which are specific to the Saudi market. As part of the focus, this aims to enhance women's employment in the Saudi market," Chaturvedi told PTI. 

The collaboration will entail LTIMindtree controlling a 51 percent stake in the company, and Global Digital – which is a wholly owned Aramco subsidiary, will own the rest of the stake. 

Announced on March 6, the JV will commence operations from July 1. 

Chaturvedi said the JV was forged after a competitive process seeing participation from over 20 companies globally in which more than 20 companies across the world participated, and LTIMindtree emerged as a successful partner after a two-year process. 

Saudi Arabia is the leading catalyst of this growth when it comes to technology spending, with massive expenditure taking place in the giga projects like NEOM, Red Sea Global etc, in Saudi Arabia.

"There are around 12 giga projects going on in the Kingdom right now, and all of the infrastructure is essentially cloud-based. What we've seen in India as part of Digital India, some of the modernisation that we've seen in the ministries is what we're going to start in the Saudi market as well as the other markets in the MENA region," Chaturvedi said. 

Considering the JV’s impact in light of the global macro-economic conditions, Chaturvedi said the prudent environment across the world with clients being budget-centric is different from the Saudi market which is not sensitive to costs, but to implementing expertise and the quality of technology offered. 

On the other hand, he stated that the margin contributions as part of the JV in the beginning will be small, but will have enormous potential in the long run. 

"The KSA and MENA region together is a large market and will continue to grow even more with the potential and the tech spending that we see in that market. We want to make sure that we capture a large share of that market. We are going to make significant investments over the years," Chaturvedi said. 

In the December quarter, LTIMindtree reported a 17 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1169.3 crore, with 5 per cent growth in revenue from operations in year-on-year terms.

(With PTI Inputs)