The Middle East's first energy business cluster looks to link with global communications and managed services provider
Doha 30 July 2007 - Energy City Qatar, the Gulf's groundbreaking energy business cluster, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NavLink, the Middle East's leading managed services provider.
The MoU allows both companies to further develop a cooperation framework in relation to the Energy City Information & Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. In principle Energy City Qatar and NavLink, an AT&T affiliated company, will explore options to develop, build and operate a state-of-the-art, data center, that meets ECQ tenants' needs
"We see this agreement as a further step towards establishing Energy City Qatar as the world's leading location for energy companies. The agreement allows both companies to work closely to identify how NavLink's pioneering technology can be integrated into the Energy City Qatar Data Center," said Hesham Al Emadi, CEO of Energy City Qatar, pinpointing the significance of today's agreement.
"In particular, we will be looking to see how we can develop hosting and managed services for our tenants, possibly co-branded as Energy City Qatar / NavLink," added Al Emadi.
Laurent Delifer, Co-President and COO of NavLink, said: "We are excited about our collaboration with ECQ and looking forward, with our strategic partners, to enable ECQ to offer advanced IP-based services to its tenants within the city as well as managed global connectivity to fulfill their most demanding telecommunication needs".
Explaining further about the technological advantage this agreement will give Energy City, Head of Technology Mark Fuller said: "Energy City Qatar will be the most technologically advanced business center is the Gulf. Our tenants will be operating in the global market and the agreement signed today means Energy City Qatar is serious about offering them access to one of the most advanced and robust worldwide communications infrastructures anywhere."
"The Energy City Qatar Data Center will be a crucial element to providing tenants with access to ultra-fast, uninterrupted communications across the globe. Energy City Qatar will install an advanced Data Node capable of directly interconnecting our residents with businesses and other Energy Cities around the world, using the fastest, most reliable technology available," added Fuller.
Bassem Soubra, NavLink Territory Manager commented, "NavLink is keen on working with ECQ on introducing world-class ICT services; hence, creating more value to ECQ tenants".
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About Energy City Qatar
Energy City Qatar (ECQ) is a pioneering development that will be the Gulf's first oil and gas industry hub. ECQ will be a single point of access to markets and expertise, the Middle East home for global players in the hydrocarbon value chain.
Envisioned by Gulf Energy, ECQ aims to attract the industry leaders in oil and gas production, IOCs, NOCs, support services, infrastructure and downstream activities, shipping and trading, market and resource data, intellectual property and energy trading.
ECQ has the full support of the Qatari Government and aims to lead the way in hydrocarbon above ground resource development.
ECQ forms part of the major new city development, Lusail, which in addition to major business and entertainment districts, will be home to up to 200,000 residents. Qatar is the most progressive, business friendly and the fastest growing economy in the Middle East. Home to the world's third largest natural gas reserves, Qatar has a stable and maturing political environment, a free press, and internationally recognised regulatory environment.
ECQ's lead financial advisor is Gulf Finance House, and PFC Energy is its strategic advisor. Its strategic partners are Abu Dhabi Investment House and Kuwait Investment Company.
About NavLink
NavLink (www.navlink.com) is a system and network integrator and managed service provider, operating in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Founded in December 1996, NavLink achieved a leadership position in high-end IP consulting, system integration, enterprise networking services, enterprise hosting and managed services serving telecommunications organizations, as well as multinational corporations.
NavLink operates a carrier class data center in Nice, France part of AT&T's 30 global data centers. NavLink is a strategic partner of AT&T, and acts as AT&T's service delivery arm for enterprise customers in the Middle East and Africa.
For further information please contact:
Farid Trabulsi
Head of Corporate Communications
Energy City Qatar
Telephone: + (974) 441 1522
Mobile: + (974) 582 9043
Fax: + (974) 441 1577
Email: ftrabulsi@energycity.com
Website: www.energycity.com
© Press Release 2007
