Strong interest from IT industry for Tecom Investments' Pearl Awards

Aiming to drive excellence and global best practices within each Business Partner organisation operating from within the Tecom free zones, the Pearl Awards was recently launched by Tecom Investments, a leading developer of knowledge-based business clusters and a member of Dubai Holding.

As one of the largest ICT clusters in the world, Dubai Internet City hosts over 1200 companies many of which have demonstrated support for the new initiative.

Hari Padmanabhan, Chief Strategic Advisor, 3i Infotech Ltd, said:

"The Pearl Awards encourage an enhanced engagement of businesses with the communities they operate in. Honouring contributions in areas such as corporate social responsibility and environment emphasize the importance of being a good corporate citizen rather than remain a mere business entity. The Pearl Awards and other awards seek to honour outstanding companies so they are recognized among potential customers. Without a doubt, recognition for entrepreneurship and innovation encourages 'out of the box' business ideas."

In celebration of the mutual success and growth achieved by Tecom Business Parks and their Business Partners, the awards also aim to enhance Dubai's status as a leading knowledge-based economy and set new benchmarks in operational excellence within the knowledge clusters, eventually contributing to the UAE economy.

Ahmed Nassef, Vice President of Maktoob Group, the world's largest Arab online community, and an entrant for the 'Fastest Growing Company of the Year' award, added, "The initiative is a very important step Tecom and Dubai Internet City have taken to ensure that a high level of innovation and success is maintained within the Dubai community. I believe it's very important to establish such recognition schemes as they serve as a key motivational factor for driving excellence and giving the community a strong momentum to allocate more efforts to excel in their respective fields as part of a community."

Leading community oriented programmes such as Pearl Awards has become more relevant to Tecom Investments as it has come to play a far more significant role in the region. The growth of Tecom Investments since its first entity, Dubai Internet City, opened in October 2000 has been remarkable.

Malek Al Malek, Executive Director of Dubai Internet City, said:

"Tecom Investments' Pearl Awards is a great recognition for knowledge-based companies that focus on responsible business practices. At Dubai Internet City, we strive to be socially responsible and environmentally-conscious, even while achieving profitable returns. Balancing all three is vital when making business decisions as we continue to demonstrate our commitment to driving the IT market in the region and contributing to the sustainable development of Dubai."

Submissions to the awards from Business Partners will be evaluated by third party assessors, who will offer recommendations to the jury for their final selection of winners.

The awards are open to all licensed Business Partners that have been operating for at least 12 months within Tecom Investments' free zones.