MOBILY
Renowned business monthly Arabian Business named Mobily as the Best Telecommunications Company in Saudi Arabia for the Year 2010. The magazine awarded Mobily the title based on its phenomenal profitability, runaway popularity and huge traffic on its state-of-the-art broadband network, all of which made Mobily the region's undisputed sector leader. Engineer Abdulaziz Altamami, Mobily's chief operating officer, received the award on behalf of the company's CEO, Khalid Al-Kaf. Altamami expressed his great pleasure for the honoring, which he said is the fruit of the company's projects and strategic plans, as well as the innovative products and services it has on offer and its initiatives to bring the latest technologies to the Kingdom.
"We are thrilled to have won this award, which joins shelves of national, regional and international recognitions won by Mobily," he said. "After the graces of God, these achievements were made possible with the efforts of Mobily's employees, as well as our solid infrastructure that continues to win over customers by the thousands, who we in turn can give leading services that enrich their lives." Altamami said that Mobily's new five-year strategy will be the backbone of more achievements that will entail even more recognitions, because the strategy draws on detailed studies of future trends of the telecom sector in the region while going in line with global trends, which revolve around fixed and mobile broadband. The ceremony, held at Al-Faisaliyah hotel in Riyadh, was also attended by Humoud Al-Ghobaini, Mobily's vice president for corporate communications and PR.
Construction Products Holding Company (CPC) was voted "Best Company in Industrial Building Materials" for the Saudi business sector in 2010. ITP awards for this year honored 17 companies of different business sectors in Saudi Arabia who were nominated by a judge panel. The awards were announced and trophies delivered in a special ceremony held for this purpose at the Al-Faisaliah Hotel in Riyadh, in the presence of a large number of government officials, businessmen and journalists. Faysal Alaquil, director of business development for CPC International, accepted the award on behalf of CPC from Waleed Akawi, CEO of ITP Publishing Group. Alaquil expressed the company's pride for receiving this award and commented, "We are very pleased CPC was selected to receive this award which has been nominated by this prestigious and respected publishing house. This award will be a motivation for us to further work and achieve to the best interest of the construction products industry, which is our specialty, and where we achieved notable success."
BNP Paribas for the forth consecutive year has begun its Young Graduate Development Program (YGDP) across the Gulf. Sixteen new graduates from Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were inducted into the 2010 program. The Young Graduate Development Program is a high profile and intensive learning program designed exclusively for talented GCC national graduates with a Bachelors or Masters Degree. This program includes training and development initiatives supported by detailed feedback to the participants. Graduates that take part in this program also benefit from external training courses with the capital knowledge and other partners tailored for the program. Abdelhakim Doukkali, BNP Paribas regional head of human resources, said "We are extremely proud that our program has reached 100 percent retention rate over the past 4 years. Our new trainees will benefit from being exposed to a variety of assignments and challenges that will enable them to gain and develop new skills and competencies, preparing them for a potential and fruitful career with BNP Paribas".
The leading power and automation technology group, ABB has signed a service contract with the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) to provide maintenance for equipment and systems at the Gulf Interconnection Grid's newly constructed substations, the company announced in Riyadh on Wednesday. The two-year contract between ABB and the GCCIA, which is worth $8.3 million, will aim to optimize the grid's reliability through regular maintenance and provide technical and emergency assistance when required. "ABB will provide round-the-clock support to the Interconnection Grid, including frequent substation visits for preventive maintenance and inspection as well as coordination with all suppliers for substation equipment," ABB's country services manager in Saudi Arabia, Jalal Bageri said on Wednesday. Substations covered under the agreement include Al-Fadhili, Ghunan, Salwa and Ras Al-Qurayha in Saudi Arabia, Al-Jasra in Bahrain, Al-Zour in Kuwait and Doha South in Qatar.
Wider availability of movies, music, television series and computer games will render piracy obsolete, according to the directors of Lehner Investments, the manager of the MultiMediaFund, who believe part of the illegal trade is triggered by pricing and availability issues. "Eventually, when global property rights have been negotiated and the infrastructure is in place, consumers will be able to legally and instantly access any content in high quality on any device anywhere in the world and in any language at a very low cost. This will make piracy irrelevant as it will no longer be viable," said Klaus Lovgreen, COO, Lehner Investments. The UAE's National Media Council recently destroyed 22,000 pirate CDs confiscated in Dubai in the first quarter of 2010 but the country's piracy rate is still below the international average, according to the Ministry of Economy. Since the UAE joined the World trade Organization in 1996, it has updated all legislation associated with intellectual property to meet international requirements.
With a focus on connecting the health care system through clinical information exchange, GE Healthcare introduced its next-generation eHealth platform in the Middle East. The Global eHealth Solutions platform includes expanded services for health information exchange, a clinical portal, and a patient health management system all focused on delivering the value of eHealth to healthcare providers, health insurance bodies and governmental agencies. These solutions help to simplify the collection and exchange of data across a wide variety of legacy clinical systems, including imaging products (RIS/PACS — Radiology Information System/Picture Archiving and Communication System), Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), laboratories, pharmacies and other systems used for diagnostics or patient monitoring. "The main goal of our eHealth strategy is to improve quality and access in healthcare while reducing costs," said Bernard Algayres, general manager — eHealth of GE Healthcare IT, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, has signed a sponsorship agreement with Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) the region's leading Pay TV provider to support the network's high-definition decoder roll out and channel line-up. The agreement which will span OSN's complete Middle East footprint from May 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2011, underscores the perfect fit offered by Samsung's high-definition televisions in maximizing the OSN HD viewing experience. The Samsung-OSN HD partnership will offer viewers unparalleled entertainment experience with 75 premium channels including eight HD channels — such as OSN Movies, Show Sports 1 HD, Nat Geo Wild HD, and Food Network HD among others. Kyungtae Bae, president of Samsung Electronics Middle East & North Africa , said: "Our partnership with OSN marks the collaboration of two leaders in home entertainment. While OSN's new HD decoder rollout offers the consumer unprecedented content quality and choice, as the recommended HD TV brand, Samsung products will further enhance the consumers viewing experience. We will be leveraging our leading technologies and differentiated marketing platforms to create a long-term association with OSN to further enhance our market share in the Middle East region." OSN is the first and only broadcaster, in the region, to bring an exclusive bouquet of eight high-definition channels through various packages and will embark on a well planned roll out of HD decoders to the region.
