Research and analysis from the Arab Advisors Group has revealed that close to 82 percent of Saudis listen to FM radio. A new report — “An analysis of FM Radio Listening Patterns in Saudi Arabia” — found that 54 percent listen to FM radio on a daily basis. FM radio listening is mostly done while driving cars, with over 57 percent of Saudis listening to the radio in their cars. A minority of four percent listen to FM radio stations at work.

“Our research shows that the majority of surveyed radio listeners tune in to music and news programs,” said Judeh Siwady, Arab Advisors Group research analyst. “Males seem to prefer news and music programs while females seem to prefer talk shows and social programs. People below 35 years of age make up the largest component of those that listen to the radio. A somewhat surprising 30 percent actually listen to the radio via satellite receivers.”

GCC e-Government Forum

The 11th GCC e-Government Forum will feature sessions on the future of GCC e-government security and infrastructure. The event, organized by Datamatix, will be held from May 21- 25, 2005 at the Dubai World Trade Center.

“With the introduction of e-government, government organizations are increasingly exposed to the Internet through online services and are growing more reliant on technology infrastructures for all their operations,” said Ali Al-Kamali, MD, Datamatix. “With ICT security becoming an extremely critical issue, what are the key areas of weakness and how can government organizations protect themselves through better security policies, procedures and environments? That will be a key focus of this conference.”

Along with ICT security, a variety of issues will be discussed during the five-day event including m-government, redesigning e-government business and citizen services, delivering government services through the web, change management and much more. Day 5 of the e-Government Forum will be devoted to case studies and expert discussions on ICT security for e-government. Leading advisers from government and industry bodies, practitioners in ICT security and leading suppliers will take part in the discussions.

“As we drive forward with e-government we clearly need standards to secure the delivery of e-government services and inspire trust and confidence among the end users,” Al-Kamali said. “The 11th GCC e-Government Forum is an excellent opportunity to discuss the security challenges facing e-government projects in the GCC with regional and international experts and decision makers.”

Intel Forms New Group

Intel is marking the 10-year anniversary of its reseller channel program, a worldwide network of distributors, resellers, dealers, local integrators and sales teams that has helped drive a dramatic increase in markets served and sales of Intel-based solutions. Collectively, sales from this organization now account for approximately one-third of all Intel processor sales.

Related with the occasion, Intel has announced the formation of The Channel Products Group to expand on Intel’s success in global markets. By combining into one organization existing groups such as the 10-year-old Reseller Channel Organization, Intel will consolidate efforts to develop and sell Intel technology and products to meet the unique needs of local markets worldwide.

“This worldwide celebration is also an occasion for us to recognize the success of our channel programs here in the Middle East,” said Maan Ahmadie, Intel’s channel manager for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region. “We take this occasion to thank our distributors, as well as all the Intel Product Integrators and Intel Premier Providers for the growth and success that they are helping us to achieve, making this region one of the fastest growing for Intel in the world.”

Intel’s products are sold through a network of more than 1,000 distributor locations to a broad and sophisticated channel organization of 160,000 members in 112 countries around the globe, with a significant portion of sales coming from Intel’s investment in emerging markets. During 2004, Intel doubled its coverage of emerging market cities to achieve a presence in 1,200 cities. The company also added 25,000 new dealers and opened offices in Peru, Lebanon, Mongolia, Costa Rica, Romania, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“Evident by our long history and the increased focus we announced with the standalone organization for our channel programs, Intel is committed to bringing computing and communications technologies to countries around the world,” said Bill Siu, VP, Intel Channel Products Group. “We can accomplish this by helping to establish local businesses and providing training on how to build and sell computers. We also collaborate with local governments to bring PCs and technology literacy to people in order to bridge the technology gap between established and emerging markets.”