Bangalore, May 10 (IANS) Leading Indian infotech major HCL Technologies will provide ICT (information and communication technology) services to customers of Gulf telecom operator Etisalat, a statement said Monday.

As per the agreement, signed by HCL president for Middle East and Africa Virender Aggarwal and Etisalat vice president for business solutions Abdulla Hashim in Abu Dhabi, the solutions will be in the areas of mobility, cloud computing and advanced ICT services.

According to a company statement released here, both the partners will share intellectual capital and industry expertise by offering ICT services to Gulf enterprises for accelerating their business growth.

"Besides providing avant-garde services to our customers, the partnership with HCL will help us consolidate our position in the region as a forward-looking telecom and ICT service provider," Hashim said.

The collaboration comes at a time when IT solutions are taking centre stage in organisational business plans to enhance productivity and optimise efficiency in line with renewed economic growth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"Given the enterprise focus on reducing costs and driving operational efficiency, we see a strong synergy between our expertise in cloud computing and mobility allied with Etisalat's telecom infrastructure and focus on ICT services," Aggarwal said.

The convergence of device connectivity, software innovation and cloud-based services is enabling a greater number of people and organisations to gain access to information and communicate and collaborate in more powerful ways.

The $20-billion Etisalat operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa and has 135 million subscribers for mobile and fixed line voice and data services.