DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 3, 2010 - The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Cisco announced at GITEX 2010 that they have joined forces to explore potential collaborative opportunities.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• DEWA's top priority is to integrate the latest technology  solutions into its infrastructure.  This strategy is in line with the objectives of the Dubai Strategic Plan as outlined by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice president, Prime minister and ruler of Dubai, which aims to establish Dubai as the region's global economic and financial pole.
• DEWA and Cisco intend to co-operate in the creation of services primarily focused on aligning DEWA's information and communications technology strategy objectives with Cisco®  advanced technologies that add more value to DEWA than could be achieved individually.

Executive Quotes:

• HE / Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive officer of DEWA:

"Joining forces with leading companies like Cisco is an inherent part of our strategic plan to increase the competency, productivity and professional development of DEWA staff and to accelerate the development of our telecommunication networks. Our aim is to achieve the electronic enablement that will ultimately help to streamline our services and procedures and result in high customer satisfaction."

"This partnership will facilitate training and continuous education opportunities for DEWA's employees that will strengthen their productivity, career development and job satisfaction and also enable us to stay at the forefront of technology, harness new trends, and create new business opportunities."

• Marwan Salem bin Haider, vice president – chief of IT, DEWA

"Today's announcement is a significant step forward in our collaboration with Cisco. We believe that combining DEWA's comprehensive infrastructure and services with Cisco's established  experience in providing network services will result in much richer ways of providing people with access to the information and services across our multiple channels.

"Initially, the focus will be on exchanging information on the evolution of technology solutions related to the next-generation networks for both wire line and mobile networks, evaluations, early field trials and pilots, as well as collaboration on customer briefings and proof of concepts."

• Wayne Hull, director and general manager, Cisco, UAE

Cisco is proud to work closely with DEWA to ensure that it remains at forefront of technology developments in order to deliver customer satisfaction and promote Dubai's vision for the delivery of electricity and water services at a world-class level. Our collaboration with DEWA demonstrates Cisco's commitment to continue to support government entities in the UAE in order to build a better future for citizens through the intelligent application of information communications technology, using the network as the platform."

Additional Resources:

• RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

Links /URL's:

• Emerging Markets RSS Feed: http://newsroom.cisco.com/data/syndication/rss2/EmergingMarkets.xml
• Middle East News: http://newsroom.cisco.com/me