RIYADH, 21 June 2005 — The Ministry of Education, the Modern Electronics Co., a subsidiary of Al Faisaliah, and Sony Gulf FZE, have announced the names of the winners of the first “Sony Creative Science Awards.” The Sony awards are being given to recognize the scientific capabilities of Saudi students and make learning science fun.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Prince Mohammed Al-Faisal, said: “Since this is the first year the awards have been given, we have been overwhelmed by the phenomenal response from students.”

The awards aim to promote creativity among children and help make science interesting. In the program, children from different schools are invited to create a toy which demonstrates at least one scientific principle.

First prize was won by Khalid Al-Khateri from Al Taawon School in Jeddah. Second place went to Abdullah Al-Douiji from Riyadh’s Hijaz School. Third place was won by Ahmed Al-Noaimy from Al-Hosan School in Dammam.

Referring to the objectives of the award, the managing director of Sony Gulf said: “The Sony award is another example of our commitment to encouraging students to explore their capabilities through innovative creations. When we launched the award in February this year, we hoped that it would achieve its objective — to make science learning fun. Judging from the response I can confidently say that the competition has been a huge success.”

This initiative was also lauded by an official from the Education Ministry, Ali Al-Wazrah. He said, “This award will play an important role in discovering the caliber of students and, at the same time, giving them a good grounding in the application of scientific principles. We are thankful to Modern Electronics and Sony for initiating this program in our country.”

The award was initiated by the Sony Group of companies in Singapore in July 1998 and since then it has become a popular competition in many countries.

Al-Faisaliah Group is a major diversified enterprise operating across the Middle East. Established in 1970, the group has grown to become one of the top 20 Saudi companies, and is also one of the fastest-growing.

Modern Electronics, a branch of Al-Faisaliah, is the sole distributor of Sony products in Saudi Arabia.