The Dubai office of computer networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. has been training engineers from Syria, despite a ban on US companies exporting computers there, Al-Bayan newspaper reported Wednesday.
Washington bans US firms from exporting computers to Syria as well as Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Sudan.
"Twenty-four engineers from the state-run Syrian Telecommunications Establishment underwent a series of training programs in February at Dubai Internet City (DIC), Cisco and Thuraya (Satellite Telecoms Co.)," the paper said.
The engineers were invited to the Gulf trading hub of Dubai by the emirate's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who is also defense minister of the United Arab Emirates.
The paper added that some Syrian experts will meet shortly in Dubai within the framework of a "program to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of information technology (IT)."
The decision was taken during a meeting Tuesday between DIC executive director Mohammad Gergawi and Faruq Qaddur, Syria's consul to Dubai, according to Al-Bayan.
Cisco, which opened its Dubai office in 1995, was one of the companies chosen by DIC to provide its technological infrastructure.
The first phase of DIC, launched in October last year and heralded as the first free-trade Internet zone in the world, is due to be completed this October at a cost of some 200 million dollars.
Aside from companies conducting e-commerce, DIC is hoping to lure regional head offices and centers of research and development for IT companies, as well as opening up an "Internet university."
Cisco said in July that Internet usage in Syria was the poorest in the Middle East, with just 2,000 subscribers out of a population of around 18 million. In comparison, Saudi Arabia, which has a similar population, has around 250,000 registered Internet users.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who headed the country's computer society before taking power in July, has pinpointed the development of the IT field as one of the country's key reforms.
Indian ambassador to Damascus, K.M. Meena, said in July that Syria was preparing to open up to Indian software programmers and IT training institutes, and Syrian businessmen were scouting in India for companies to open branches in Damascus. ― (AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
