Sun's vision shared with regional and international ICT professionals at leading technology events in Levant and Egypt markets

To highlight the company's commitment to North Africa, Charles Buckley, Southern and Eastern EMEA Director of Special Projects, Sun Microsystems, recently addressed delegates at this year's Egypt International Economic Forum.

Held under the Auspices of His Excellency Mohamed Hosny Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, this year's conference entitled 'CIT: A Path for Arab Revival' was well attended by more than 1000 industry professionals and focused on a number of topics including e -learning, investment in the CIT sectors, security and network development in the Arab World.

"The development of the telecom and IT in the region is creating vast opportunities for industry players. Coupled with regional liberalization in key sectors of the economy including education and health bodes well for the future as Sun's software and Linux solutions are ideally suited to assist these organizations in significantly reducing complexity and costs," said Buckley, during his presentation.

Hellmuth Broda, Chief Technology Officer of Sun Microsystems in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), also addressed attendees at this year's Jordan ICT Forum. The Kingdom's premier international information and communications technology (ICT) industry event was held under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II.

The two-day event, organized by the Information Technology Association of Jordan and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, saw participation from more than 600 ICT leaders, representatives of governments and business delegations.

Broda's presentation focused primarily on steps that can be taken to reduce the complexity and costs associated with regional IT environments. Targeting his remarks at decision makers in the audience, he stressed the importance of streamlining operations in this time of rapid growth in the Arab World.

"The Middle East continues to remain a crucial market for Sun Microsystems. It is imperative that we use forums such as the one in Jordan to attend to our strong customer base in the region. Being at this conference has enabled us to explore investment opportunities available in the Arab world today, network with local, regional and local ICT key players and leverage the benefits of sharing resources, experiences and Arab human capital to promote regional and global trade in the ICT sector," said Broda, commenting on Sun's participation in this year's event.

Broda is scheduled to return to the region in time for GITEX 2004, where he will address attendees of a concurrent technology conference.

To increase Sun's reach in Lebanon, a number of the company's business partners exhibited at Termium, the Levant's largest international I.T. trade fair, held recently in Beirut. During the event, Omnisystems and ACT exhibited a range of industry-specific solutions built on the Sun platform. Both companies are members of the Sun partner community, managed by regional channel development provider Tech Access.

"As the Levant and North Africa markets become increasingly deregulated and privatised across a number of key industries, its increasingly important for Sun to show our support for customers and partners on the ground in those countries. Events such as the Egypt Economic Forum, Jordan ICT Forum, and Termium enable Sun to further raise awareness about the low-cost and complexity-reducing advantages of our solutions for decision-makers there," concluded Mehmet Iyimen, managing director for Sun Microsystems MENA.