Fujitsu Siemens Computers has appointed its sales partner in Bahrain, Bin Hindi Informatics, to officiate additionally as its service partner. The partnership was announced by the Bahraini company's general manager A Karim Aman and Fujitsu Siemens' vice-president for international sales Dirk de Waegeneire.

De Waegeneire said Bin Hindi Informatics, part of the AA Bin Hindi Group, was appointed service partner after it successfully completed related qualifying programmes. The move would give it full access to Fujitsu Siemens Computers' support tools and spare parts logistics.

Bin Hindi has been a sales partner for Fujitsu Siemens in Bahrain for its complete range of products ranging from ultra-portable notebooks to PCs for corporate and private customers and high-performance servers marketed as floor-standing devices or as rack technology.

The AA Bin Hindi Group, comprising trading companies, started in 1965 as an auto spares business but diversified its activities subsequently. Bin Hindi Informatics was formed in 1993 and its main divisions now are telecommunications, hardware & software and Internet & cyber space.

Aman said Bin Hindi now held the third position in Bahrain's PC market and aimed to increase sales of Fujitsu Siemens products. Fujitsu-Siemens, whose worldwide revenues total 6 billion euros, ranks first in the home market, second in professional PCs and sixth in notebooks in international sales.

Fujitsu Siemens' office in Dubai, which opened about a year ago to serve as a base for operations in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, had doubled business, de Waegeneire said.

"We're getting business in the Enterprise world and Dubai Shopping Festival recently created a portal that ran on our servers," he added.