RIYADH, 9 April 2008 — Dell Inc., the global IT giant that generated revenues worth $61 billion last year, has expressed a strong interest to develop IT infrastructure in the Kingdom’s six mega economic cities.

“Certainly we are interested in the infrastructure, mega data centers and large green data centers of the economic cities,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., at a round-table discussion on Monday night.

He said that during his meeting with senior officials from the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), the two sides discussed how Dell Inc. could work with SAGIA to develop the cities’ industrial base.

“There were also discussions on how Saudi Arabia could be a hub for the region for large data centers and about power intensive industries that Dell Inc. uses in its supply chains,” he said. “They are great opportunities which we will follow up and explore.”

The chairman of the American IT company did not say whether a future agreement would be signed with SAGIA. However, he told the press to “stay tuned.”

The cities were inaugurated last year by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah as the backbone of the country’s economic development.

Growth in Online Usage

Dell said there was a tremendous growth in the number of people logging onto the Internet from Saudi Arabia.

“You’ve had 2,250 percent of people coming online since the year 2000,” he said, adding that the world was witnessing the most exciting and promising period for technology ever known, called “Connected Era.”

“There are more than one billion people online today. There are 500,000 people coming online every single day for the first time in their lives. By 2011, another billion are expected to join,” he added.

He said that Dell Inc. was committed to developing the Kingdom’s IT sector and that the company’s sales in Saudi Arabia, in particular, and the Middle East, in general, were growing faster than any other region in the world.

“I think one of the very interesting things we see here in the Kingdom and the Middle East is that our business is now moving at 70 percent in unit terms, which looks to us to be roughly three times the rate of the industry,” he said.

Asked about the company’s current relationship with Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil companies, which it had previously served for more than a decade, Dell said the company was in the process of placing more large IT clusters there.

“Though we already have some in place there, these would be even larger for management,” he said. “And, of course, they are using many of Dell’s advanced workstations, which we continue to support.”

Corporate Social Responsibility

With regard to the company’s corporate social responsibility activities in Saudi Arabia, Dell said one of the purposes of his visit to the Kingdom was to assess the situation and see how the company could improve in that area.

“We met with King Saud University where there are many opportunities of collaboration and development of the IT sector and schools. We also met with the Ministry of Education. Dell Inc. is very involved in… how to fully take advantage of IT in the public education system,” he said.

“You’ll see from Dell Inc. later on this year low-cost entry goods for computers that make it very easy for big Ministry of Education projects,” he added.