JEDDAH, 8 July 2004 — The possibility of Malaysia and Saudi Arabia cooperating in developing knowledge parks in Jeddah has increased as a result of an information communications technology (ICT) agreement between Malaysia’s Multimedia Development Corporation and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry that was signed here recently.
“The agreement signals the beginning of a new trend in knowledge and technology sharing between the two brotherly Muslim nations,” said Dr. Muhammad Ghazie Ismail, senior vice president, MDC. “The areas of collaboration include exchange of training programs and expertise in the areas of small and medium enterprises and human resources development. The development of knowledge parks in Jeddah is an area that both parties will explore,” he said.
The agreement was signed by Dr. Ismail and JCCI Vice Chairman Ghassan Ahmad Al-Sulaiman.
The Malaysian company, a high-powered one-stop agency that is driving the Malaysian government’s ICT initiative, is entrusted with the development of multimedia supercorridor, and a state-of-the-art IT and knowledge-based technology complex.
“JCCI wants to work as a catalyst and a vehicle for the transfer of technology into our market,” said Saud O. Ounallah, general director at the chamber. “The agreement will help Saudi Arabia benefit from the technology available at the multimedia supercorridor,” he said.
There are currently 1,050 multimedia supercorridor status companies, out of which 60 are world-class companies.
“We are thinking of knowledge parks, which are much bigger in concept than technology parks,” Ounallah said. “We are developing Saudi manpower to create a multimedia supercorridor in Saudi Arabia which could be bigger than the Silicon Valley,” he said.
Ounallah explained that Saudi Arabia has the capital and a large local market, with over 250 million people if surrounding countries from Pakistan to neighboring African countries are taken into account. “Most of these are hungry for development and transfer of technology,” he said.
Mineral resources are also available, and the Kingdom has one of the best silicon mines in the world.
Ounallah said a lot of ICT companies’ representatives travel to Saudi Arabia and they could establish a base here in Jeddah. The infrastructure has improved, and other things are going in the right direction.
He said JCCI, along with MDC, was playing the role of a facilitator and hoped other countries would follow suit and come to value the Saudi market.
The agreement would help explore the technology that has been developed into the Saudi and surrounding markets. “Jeddah is going to be the hub of the transfer of technology,” he added.
“The need to develop skilled and capable manpower cannot be overemphasized,” Ounallah said. “We can follow the example of Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. We have lot of resources that could be the cornerstone of developing this industry. All we need is developed manpower, which is already there.”
He said the cooperation agreement also paves the way for MDC to set up an office at the chamber to showcase leading Malaysian ICT products and services.
“In a couple of months Saudi businessmen will be able to come and see them here, not travel all the way to Malaysia. They will be able to zoom in on what interests them,” he added.
