The Skills Group establishes PR center of competence 'Arab World'

Offering, with immediate effect, a dedicated PR and advice center for businesses operating in the fast-growing Arab market.

The new 'Skills Center Arab World' comprises a highly qualified Austrian-Arab team of advisors, offering strategic PR advice and coaching in intercultural communications and negotiation skills for decision-makers in politics and the economy.

With their center of competence, Skills is the first Austrian agency to bank on the booming Arab market, offering solutions for the specific communication needs of businesses and institutions operating in the Arab market. The newly-established 'Skills Center Arab World' combines professional public relations and lobbying, with intercultural communications and business coaching. Target groups for this new service are businesses in German-speaking Europe, who are operating in the Arab world, and businesses and institutions from Arabic-speaking countries already operating in Austria or about to enter the European markets.

As associate and permanent collaborator for their new 'Skills Center Arab World', Skills managed to enlist Egyptian-born Mag. Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim (47), who is based in Vienna and has been an economic export consultant for many years. Mr Ibrahim has also been working as journalist for numerous Arab media outlets and is editor of the 'Austrian Economic Guide for the Arab World'. Mr Ibrahim is joined by Skills partners Jürgen H. Gangoly (35) and Stefan Bachleitner (34) are joined by on the Austrian-Arab advisory team.

Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim : 'So many promising projects with Arab partners fall through due to typical communication problems, or due to slip-ups in negotiations, public relations or lobbying. We now have a competent intercultural Austrian-Arab team of advisors who are all very knowledgeable with regard to possible pitfalls. All areas of export economy, tourism and public institutions will be able to profit from the expertise of our 'Skills Center Arab World'.

Skills have many years of experience with intercultural projects in the Arab world. Amongst others, their current clients include the Egyptian Tourist Office, Helnan International Hotels, who operate in Egypt and Morocco, as well as Arab top managers in Austria.

Austrian-Arab Team of advisors

Together with Egyptian consultant and management coach Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim, Skills partners Stefan Bachleitner and Jürgen H. Gangoly form a trio of experts, whose expertise covers all areas of intercultural communication, be they concerned with strategic PR advice, media relations, lobbying in Austria and countries in the Arab world or management and staff training. From now on, Skills will offer Arabic as working language, in addition to German and English.

All three advisors believe that the agency's new 'Skills Center Arab World' will contribute to the improvement of Austrian-Arab relations. Mohamed-Ali Ibrahim declares: 'Negative headlines about the Arab world are still dominating the media. But at the same time, there is a growing desire and willingness among many people to overcome cultural opposites and to work more closely together in areas of business and the economy. We endeavour to secure successful business relationships and professional communications for our clients and at the same time contribute to overcoming cultural barriers.

Economic Growth in the Arab World

Austria is an important export trading partner for the Arab world. While exports to Saudi Arabia have increased by 47.4 percent to EUR 440 million in 2006, exports to the United Arab Emirates have gone up by 48.5 percent to EUR 400 million. (Source: Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour).

'With our unique service, we are the first Austrian PR agency to respond to the steadily growing activities of Austrian businesses in the Arab world. There is also a constantly growing demand for advice with regard to the Austrian and Central European markets from Arab business,' says Gangoly.

Skills currently are in the process of developing special workshops for political and economic journalists, who are interested in background information and/or would like to gain contacts in the Arab world. These workshops will soon be available, in co-operation with institutional partners.