Two weeks before the doors open on the largest business event in the Asia Pacific region, CeBIT Australia 2012, the signs are already pointing to a bumper year.

On target to attract more than 520 exhibitors and 30,000 business visitors to Darling Harbour from May 22-24, there is a huge international presence lined up, led by a 70-strong delegation from the event’s partner country for 2012, India.

One of the largest events to take place in Asia Pacific will return to Sydney in just 2 weeks time.

Managing Director, Jackie Taranto said the strong line-up indicates that business is bullish about the future despite the GFC.

“I launched CeBIT 11 years ago with just two halls, 15,870 visitors and 384 exhibitors. It is now one of the largest events, in size, held in Australia and each year, it generates millions of dollars of business for the economy.

“We already have delegations and companies from 16 countries and the largest-ever participation by State and Federal Government departments,” she said.

“With India as our Partner Country for 2012, we are delighted to have The Hon Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Information Technology and Minister of Human Resource Development attending as well.

India is Australia’s 5th largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between India and Australia has increased annually by approximately 18% over the past five years, making India one of Australia’s fastest growing trading partners.

“CeBIT always provides unparalleled opportunities for international and local trade and business and this year will be no exception,” Taranto said.

CeBIT Australia delivers an annual economic boost of more than $A167m to the NSW and Australian economies and since, its inception, has delivered an estimated more than two billion dollars of economic value to Australia.

CeBIT Australia’s 2012 theme will be “Trust and Security”, an issue facing all business today, as more and more processes are moved into cloud.

“Cloud technologies are the way of the future but there are still reservations about its adoption because of security questions,” Taranto said.

“CeBIT 2012 will focus heavily on cloud, both in the Exhibition and in the Conference schedule. I can confidently say that anyone contemplating the future of cloud technologies will find everything they need to know under one roof in May.”

The conference stream, which will be held over the three days of the event, will cover the topics of cloud, retail, e-health, e-government, mobile, AusInnovate and social enterprise.

Some of the world’s leading companies have already signed to exhibit at CeBIT Australia 2012 including Telstra, Dell, HP, Panasonic, AAPT, 3M, Nokia, Symantec,Volkswagen, IBM and hundreds of others.