Opens office in Colombo and commits to set up five more Networking Academies

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - 25 March 2002 - Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today re-emphasized its commitment to Sri Lanka and the SAARC region. It announced the opening of their office in Colombo and also committed to setting up five Cisco Networking Academies across Sri Lanka over the next year and a half.

Cisco is strengthening its presence in the country to meet the growing networking needs of businesses including the government, large enterprises, and telecommunications and Internet service providers.

The office will provide sales and service support to Cisco's existing two System Integrators and 25 Resellers in Sri Lanka and will explore opportunities to further increase the company's presence in it. The Networking Academies will proliferate networking education and skills in Sri Lanka. Cisco has partnered with UNDP Asia pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) for this NA expansion initiative. APDIP will be recruiting a UN volunteer who will work with Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Cisco existing NA in Sri Lanka to expand this program and create gender awareness for the program.

Cisco's Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions are the foundation of the Internet and most corporate, education, and government networks around the world. Cisco provides the broadest line of solutions for transporting data, voice and video within buildings, across campuses, or around the world. Cisco is the No. 1 networking vendor in APAC with over 60.3% market share according to independent market research studies. In addition to technology and product leadership, Cisco is recognized as an innovator in how business is conducted. The company has been a pioneer in using the Internet to provide customer support, sell products, offer training, and manage finances.

"As a part of our SAARC mandate, Cisco is looking to strengthen its presence in the region. Sri Lanka is amongst the more mature and promising telecom markets in the region with private industry participation in it. Players are expanding their networks and teledensity is on the rise. Cisco with its expertise and end -to-end solutions plans to partner with the industry and support their networking initiatives," said Manoj Chugh, President India & SAARC Cisco Systems..

"Sri Lanka has a progressive government, high level of IT acceptance and literacy among the masses and a low penetration of traditional telecom networks. This makes Sri Lanka an ideal market to adopt the IP-based communications platform. We believe that Cisco and Millennium IT are ideally placed to leverage off this opportunity by delivering world class networking solutions to enterprises and service providers in the country," said Tony Weeresinghe, Managing Director/CEO, Millennium IT.

"The optimism in the Sri Lankan networking market is best captured by the tremendous activity in the SME sector. As more and more Sri Lankan companies grow to adopt the internet to connect with the global market, we believe that customers are beginning to appreciate the need for reliable, scalable and redundant networks. The entry of Cisco into the Sri Lankan market will support and strengthen our efforts to drive the wave of IT empowerment," said S.Vasunandan, Sales & Marketing Manager, SAARC, Ingram Micro.

Cisco first established a presence in Sri Lanka in 1995 through the appointment of its Systems Integrators. It also has 25 resellers in Sri Lanka. Some of its customers in Sri Lanka include Sri Lanka Telecom, Suntel, Lanka Bell and MTN Networks among service providers and Sampath Bank, Seylan Bank, Sri Lanka Airlines, Colombo Stock Exchange among enterprises.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at www.cisco.com.

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