GCC Meet on Post, Telecom & IT

Sultan Al-Mansoori, UAE minister of governmental sector development, chaired the 15th GCC ministerial committee for telecom, post and IT. The subcommittee for telecom regulations and IT issued its recommendations to adopt approval procedures for wireless and wired equipment for GCC countries, while the GCC General Secretariat has decided to invite a team of specialized experts in the field from GCC countries to study the possibility to unify the procedures for GCC equipment approval.

In addition, it was decided to establish a regional computer emergency response team (CERT) for the GCC. Plus, the rest of the GCC member states are encouraged to establish similar teams at centers in their respective countries. Also, the recommendations advised publishing the roaming charges among all GCC countries, along with coordination among member states to prepare a digital television channels plan, coordination among GCC countries regarding the allocation of radio channels, GSM network overlap in the member states and their participation in regional conferences related to this area.

The subcommittee for telecom and IT operators made recommendations to issue uniform interconnection pricing among telecom operators in member states, starting this year, a uniform prepaid mobile roaming services price list and issuing a common GCC strategy for the telecom sector.

The Post subcommittee put forward many recommendations, among which were issuing a common GCC stamp, establishing a new postal service for GCC countries called “Khaleeji Express” and establishing a GCC postal delivery company. The Post subcommittee also recommended participating in international postal forums and exhibitions using a GCC unified team under the name of “The GCC Postal Group.” It was also decided to standardize the interconnectivity of the GCC postal services websites.

The final recommendations also included providing complete support to the GCC countries that are nominating themselves for International Telecommunication Union (ITU) council membership during 2006-2010, which are namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Also, a complete consensus to offer support for the Saudi candidate applying for the position of director of development sector in the International Telecommunication Union was reached.

Tech Access Expands Channel

Tech Access has expanded its channel operation in Saudi Arabia and appointed Walid Moussa as the country manager. Moussa will be responsible for Tech Access’ channel strategy and development in the country, including the launch of the company’s new channel program. He brings more than 10 years of channel experience to Tech Access. Prior to joining the company, he spent eight years at Al-Faisaliah-Ebttikar, a division of the Al-Faisaliah Group, where he was account manager and acting area manager.

“The regional market for information technology services is booming, especially in Saudi Arabia where IT spending is expected to cross over $6 billion in 2006, up from analyst estimates of $3.2 billion in 2005. The Kingdom’s massive public sector outlay represents huge growth opportunities for vendors and resellers and we have seen considerable growth for Tech Access and our growing partner community,” Moussa said.

BPC Appoints Mideast GM

Banking Production Centre (BPC), an e-payments and retail banking solutions provider, has appointed James Massey as Middle East GM. The appointment is a key element of BPC’s growth strategy in the GCC and Massey will oversee all sales, customer support, marketing, partner and customer relations across the region.

“The company’s decision to establish this presence in the region also reflects its objective to drive expansion across the Gulf countries and to reinforce the sales and support of its SmartVista suite of software products for card management and transaction processing,” said Anatoly Loginov, General Director, BPC.

In addition to the countries already covered by its strategic alliance with Gulf Business Machines (GBM), BPC will be addressing new markets in Egypt, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Turkey.