15 March 2005

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has agreed to jointly fund, together with the Ministry of Education, the development and equipping of a new multimedia production unit.

A Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Education and PDO agreeing to set up the unit was signed on 14th March 2005 on behalf of the Ministry by Dawood Salim Abdullah Al-Hamdani, Director of Textbook Production and the Educational Technology Centre, in the presence of Her Excellency Dr Muna Bint Salim Bin Khalfan Al Jardaniyah, Under Secretary at the Ministry, and on behalf of PDO by the Human Resources Director, Mr Mundhir bin Salim Al-Barwani.

The unit, to be based within the Ministry, will be used to produce multimedia learning packages and e-books that can be distributed to schools both on CD and via the internet for use by students and teachers. The unit will in addition produce for PDO multimedia work that it may require, as well as products related to the process of oil production in Oman. 

Mr. Al-Barwani said that PDO's involvement in the project was in line with its support for sustainable development initiatives throughout Oman.

"Many of the projects we support have at their heart an educational basis and are aimed at providing young Omanis with quality educational resources," he said. "The production unit will ensure that excellent multimedia materials are produced by Omanis for Omanis and will at the same time put at PDO's disposal a facility for producing materials that we must currently purchase on the open market."

PDO will be equipping the unit with state-of-the-art hardware and software. The Ministry will provide training in a number of multimedia disciplines such as image processing, sound and video editing and multimedia authoring.

The unit is due to be operational by the end of April 2005.

-Ends-

For further information please contact the PDO External Affairs & Communications Department:
Najla al Riyami,
Productions Coordinator
Tel: 2467-5808;
E-mail: Najla.a.riyami@pdo.co.om

Or

Gregory Greenwell,
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel: 2467-5370;
E-mail: gregory.r.greenwell@pdo.co.om

© Press Release 2005