Wipro Infotech and Dar Al Riyadh Group formed a joint venture called the Wipro Arabia Ltd specifically to cater to the IT market in Saudi Arabia with Wipro owning 2/3rd and the Saudi partner the rest.

The joint venture will focus on “IT solutions including application implementation, development & management, packafe implementation, services and system integration and consulting services” to Saudi Arabian companies. This is Wipro’s first overseas joint venture. With 220 employees in Saudi Arabia, Wipro earned about 10% of its total revenue or USD 17 million in the first nine months of the fiscal year from this country and USD 24 million from the whole West Asian region.

Its Saudi partner has 72 people and will be absorbed into the new company. The Saudi IT market is currently valued at USD 2.3 billion with services valued at USD 800 million. Saudi Arabian King Abdullah visited India last year and hosted as the Guest of Honor at the Republic Day parade. At that time the two nations signed three Accords which includes the creation of joint ventures globally. This is the first known incidence of private joint ventures between the two nations.