Press Release Summary = An Interview with SISCOM President Mr. Waleed Abalkhail in The Business Europe's Global Business newspaper in its May1-2, 2005 edition.
Press Release Body = Development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in general and e-commerce in particular, is a major driver for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), as it seeks to integrate with an increasingly global economy.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohamed Jamil Mulla, points out that the ministry's creation in 2003 expressed the Saudi government's total commitment to supporting the development & transformation of the KSA into a technologically advanced society. "The principal driver of our strategy is to keep the KSA on track with the rapid changes in ICT worldwide" he says.
Over 20 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operate in the KSA. Other services, such as satellite data services, fixed-line telephony & mobile services, which were formerly delivered by monopolies, have been put on the open market, following the privatization Act of 2003. The Minister says: "The mobile sector opened up in 2002 and the fixed-line service will be privatized in 2007. All other services are being opened to competition in 2006. There are two licenses for mobile services -one for GSM and the other for the third generation services -with the latter to start in 2006; the major benefit of introducing competition is to improve the quality of service provided to the customer."
Among the dominant Saudi companies in the e-commerce space is Sawabeh Information Services Company (SISCOM), an e-marketing, business intelligence (BI) solutions and professional services organization. SISCOM is now a market leader through its proprietary e-Commerce Global Network and the wide range of electronically enabled services it offers the Saudi marketplace.
The company runs SaudiCommerce.com, its new but fast-evolving proprietary global e-marketplace portal for connecting buyers and suppliers around the world. SISCOM President Waleed S. Abalkhail says: "Our vision is to help simplify e-marketing and to stimulate our business community executive to prepare for the coming wave of whole sale trading in cyberspace. We want to move our business community to higher levels of e-marketing and for them to meet and exceed their marketing goals and revenue targets."
Abalkhail outlines three ways in which SISCOM helps its clients. "We assist in connecting their businesses by integrating, all enterprise departments into one cohesive unit, as well as connecting our clients` businesses globally to maximize their corporate exposure to target customers. We help them achieve their targets by offering innovative e-marketing techniques and leveraging powerful technologies to help them gain competitive advantage. Finally we help clients to find buyers and suppliers all over the world, acquire new customers, expand their customer bases, access international markets and increase export opportunities."
2025
