RIYADH, 1 June 2004 — A business conference, which called for promoting e-commerce in Saudi Arabia here yesterday, was overshadowed by the security concerns stemming from the Alkhobar terror attacks. The two-day event on “Successful Marketing in the Technology Age” with special reference to e-business and a previous expectation of over 250 top ranking managers, decision makers and PR executives in attendance, reported a thin audience amid security fears.

During the inaugural ceremony, Barry Gray, publisher of Gulf Marketing Review (GMR), expressed his pleasure of being at the event, while welcoming the international speakers who arrived in the capital city despite warnings of imminent terror attacks issued by American and British foreign missions.

The event was organized by the GMR in cooperation with Amex Saudi Ltd. — the Kingdom-based subsidiary of American Express — Saudi Arabian Airlines, Al-Jomaih Co., ARAMEX mail & freight forwarder, Al-Miawiah Advertising, BBC World and The Economist.

Gray said, “The use of technology in marketing is a very hot topic,” adding, “What is required now is to promote new customer relationship management (CRM) with the help of online technology.”

Asked about security concerns, Gray said, “We reviewed the security arrangements of the Four Seasons Hotel and we found this property very secure. It is also not a high-risk area and we are very pleased that the two main speakers have traveled from Europe to participate in the event.”

According to Mohamad Shurrab, founder & chief executive of zgrocer.com, one of the factors that have been hampering plans of the private sector to promote e-commerce in Saudi Arabia is that “Saudis are culturally nomadic in nature and hence they would prefer to go outside for shopping.”

Another factor is the Internet penetration rate, which is very high among users between 18 to 24 years of age who have little purchasing power. Shurrab said that young users log online mainly for chatting or random surfing. “The older population with buying power is yet to use Internet and to acclimatize themselves with e-business environment”, he said.

Shurrab, a Saudi graduate in industrial engineering and robotics, further pointed out that the government has intensified its efforts to build an infrastructure to promote e-commerce and e-trading as well as e-education in the country. He said that the Saudi Telecommunications Company, now a private entity, has to do a lot more to make the system more affordable for general users in order to promote e-marketing and businesses. With the current situation, Shurrab said, “The total volume of e-commerce in Saudi Arabia will not exceed half-a-billion Saudi riyals annually, but it is poised to grow.” He said that there are over 4.5 million Internet users in Saudi Arabia. “A total of 67 percent of the population have used Internet before either at home or in Internet cafés”, said Shurrab. He predicted that the growing use of Internet and the plans to improve the quality of its services are likely to fuel a major growth in e-commerce in the Kingdom.

The conference will conclude today, with presentations from Jawad Abbassi, president of Arab Advisors Group (a Jordan-based marketing research company), Yousef Tuqan, account director of North 55 (an independent design consultancy in Dubai), and James Matthewson, managing director of the UK-based Trust Digital marketing consultancy company.