New Zealand-based Wynyard Group, a leader in risk management and crime fighting software, continues to maintain its steady momentum in the Middle East by expanding its operations and securing new customers in the region.

According to Wynyard, the GCC is New Zealand's fifth largest export market with goods exports worth $1.9 billion in the year ended December 2014.

The growth in the export of goods has averaged at 10 per cent per year over the last decade. More than 37 per cent of Wynyard's 2014 customer revenue was from the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, which includes the GCC countries, said a statement from the company.

Wynyard Group CEO Craig Richardson, who recently accompanied New Zealand Prime Minister John Key as part of an 18-member New Zealand business delegation to the GCC, said the visit was an opportunity for New Zealand to strengthen and grow trade and business links with the region.

Richardson said: “The Middle East is an important and growing market for Wynyard Group. We have signed a number of new contracts in the region in the last 12 months and continue to see strong interest in our products by customers facing threats from serious crime and new generation terrorism.”

“We will triple the size of our Middle East based team this year to support a growing customer base of financial institutions and government agencies in the region,” he said.

“We have also invested in the expansion of our Dubai office and our distribution network through local systems integrators to increase our serviceable market and support our strong growth,” he added.

The company has estimated the serious crime fighting software and services market to be as large as $8 billion, said the statement.

“There is strong demand in the Middle East for a big data analytics capability to rapidly surface actionable intelligence to solve and prevent serious crime and Wynyard is well-positioned to deliver products and solutions to meet the need,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service