Siemens has signed an MoU with the Dubai Internet City (DIC), confirming its intention to move its regional operations into a new Siemens building in the City by mid-2003. The move will make Siemens the largest tenant of the DIC to date.

According to Siemens officials, the Dubai Internet City is the ideal base for the company to continue its rapid and consistent growth in the Gulf region, taking advantage of the positioning of the DIC as the regional hub for the technology and telecommunications sectors.

The Siemens building will house regional offices for the lower Gulf (the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen) of a number of the company's business units. It will also include the regional headquarters operations for telecommunications businesses across the Middle East and beyond. The new facility will house an initial team of 300, with plans to expand this over time.

Some of the business units with Lower Gulf operations at the new facility will include Power Transmission and Distribution, Industrial Solutions and Services, Information and Communications Networks (Enterprise Networks), the IT Services Group and the corporate operations for the Siemens LLC territory.

Among the business units with operations that cover the Middle East and beyond, are the Information and Communications Mobile division's units for Networks and Devices. The devices unit includes Siemens Mobile Phones, which is today the second largest mobile phone brand in the region. Also part of the move will be the Information Security unit, which covers a larger global territory spanning Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Dr Volker Jung, senior member of the corporate executive committee and head of Siemens' operations in the Middle East, Africa and the CIS, said: "DIC's infrastructure provides an ideal environment for the development and growth of our businesses - especially those related to information technology and telecommunications.

"As a global leader in electrical and electronics engineering, information technology and telecommunications, we are pleased to be in a community that hosts a range of the global leaders in these fields."

"Partnering with companies on the cutting edge of technology like Siemens is important to Dubai Internet City's strategy of becoming a global hub for the knowledge economy," said Mohammad AI Gergawi, director general of the Dubai Technology, E-Commerce and Media Free Zone and chairman of Dubai Internet City.

Ahmed Binbyat, CEO of Dubai Internet City, said "As a complete IT and telecommunications community, the Dubai Internet City is an ideal base for global companies such as Siemens for their regional operations here.

"Our relationship with Siemens goes back to the beginnings of DIC itself, where they were the prime contractor and system integrator for Phase Zero. We are proud to welcome our largest tenant to date to the DIC."

Joachim Kundt, CEO of Siemens LLC, emphasised the significance of the move as a major development in the company's continuing relationship with the region: "This region has provided a consistent level of growth and opportunity for our organisation for many decades. We started in the 1930s with telegraph networks in the region, and our first major step in the UAE was in 1976 for the project to build the earth satellite station in Ras AI Khaimah. Since then, Siemens has played a major role in the development of infrastructure regionally, from power and medical solutions, to telecommunications, industrial automation and information technology," Kundt said.

"The move to the DIC especially signifies our confidence in the region and its prospects for the future," he added.

Siemens LLC was established in late 1999 to manage the operations of the organisation's various business units in the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. Siemens LLC also incorporates the Middle East headquarters of the Siemens ICM group, which covers the entire Middle East, Iran and Pakistan.

In fiscal 2001 (ending 30 September 2001), new orders received by all Siemens companies in the Lower Gulf totalled Euro350 million, while sales totalled Euro425 million.

The company is active in five core sectors including energy, information and communications, medical solutions, automation and control and transportation.

In the power sector, Siemens built the Jebel Ali G station, the Taweelah A2 Power plant for CMS and recently won the EUR1 billion order for the 1,500 MW Shuweihat project.

Siemens is also a major player in information and communications. The mobile networks unit recently built the first GSM network in Yemen, Sabafone, in a record five weeks while the networks group was the contractor for the cable TV pilot project. In 2000, Siemens Business Services was the prime contractor and system integrator for Phase Zero of Dubai Internet City.