RIYADH, 21 January 2008 — Madinah Knowledge Economic City (KEC) and Cisco signed an agreement yesterday for the infrastructure development of the five-million-square-meter “smart city” project.
The agreement was inked between Tahir Bawazir, chief executive officer of Knowledge Economic City (KEC) and Wim Elfrink, executive vice president and chief globalization officer of Cisco, in the presence of Sheikh Ibrahim Alissa, chairman, Madinah Knowledge Economic City and John Chambers, chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco.
“The project will boost the Saudi economy by attracting foreign direct investments, creating jobs and encouraging Muslim scientists to relocate to Saudi by providing them with the right environmental and living conditions,” Ibrahim Alissa told newsmen here.
He said the project is designed to attract global information and communications technology (ICT) firms that wish to establish operations and carry out research-and-development in the Kingdom. “It will also create more than 20,000 jobs within the city which would benefit the locals living in Madinah,” he added.
The project is the third economic city in the Kingdom initiated by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) in an aggressive bid to repatriate capital and attract value-added foreign investments. Its estimated aggregated investment is approximately $8 billion in the overall development of the city.
“Cisco will provide the network architecture for the city. All buildings in KEC will be interconnected and can be managed over a highly secure Internet Protocol (IP) network, allowing for centralized management and reduced operational costs for the city,” Chambers said. The city’s network will facilitate data, voice, video and mobile communications across commercial and residential buildings.
“Smart cities rely on a combination of state-of-the-art facilities. Cisco will help us differentiate the Knowledge Economic City with world-class Smart infrastructure that will help connectivity, connected real estate and value added services for businesses and residents,” Bawazir said. “Teaming up with businesses reduce Capital Expenditure and Operating Expenses.” “The Knowledge City project in Saudi Arabia will demonstrate how technology innovations can bring about new levels of development of brand new cities that will help attract knowledge industries and investments while favorably impacting management and operational costs,” Elfrink said.
To further develop the human capital in Saudi Arabia, Cisco is also committed to establishing the Cisco Networking Academy within the KEC to help train skilled professionals to design and maintain networks. Academies will play a key role in helping to address the shortfall of local technology talent in the Kingdom.
