Smart cities and technology zones will be up and running soon in Saudi Arabia!
Technical presentations on Quality Management Systems and Smart Cities were presented in Annual Seminar 2008 hosted by Institutions of Engineers Pakistan - Saudi Arabian Center (IEP-SAC) in Riyadh
The Smart Cities and the Technology Zones in the Kingdom would be up and running within the next 36 months. Dr. Tawfig Al-Rabiah – the Director General of Saudi Organization of Industrial Estates and Technology Zones (SOIETZ) - stated this at the annual Seminar 2008 hosted by Institutions of Engineers Pakistan - Saudi Arabian Center (IEP-SAC) in Riyadh this past weekend.
The first technical presentation was on Quality Management by Mobin Sheikh, Director / Principal Consultant of InfoVision Consultants W.L.L. His talks covered the whole gamut of information about what Quality Management was all about and its importance in the world of today. He informed that although Quality Control and Quality Assurance were the two important prongs of quality management but it was in fact very much beyond that. He enlightened the audience with the historical evolution of the subject and the researches made on the issues in USA, Europe and in Japan. He also educated the audience on the aspects of Total Quality Management and the requirements of ISO implementation and certifications. He also touched base on various Quality Management Software now in use internationally and also spoke about Six Sigma and its merits and demerits in Total Quality Management process.
Mobin Sheikh highlighted the importance of technology in enterprise-wide quality management and discussed the challenges and benefits of having integrated quality management with Enterprise Resource Planning / Customer Relationship Management / Supply Chain Management / Statistical Process Control softwares / Business Intelligence Software. He also explained the methods of integrating various desperate softwares into a single integrated enterprise-wide application to support management in making informed decisions. In the last part of his technical presentation he focused on the selection criteria for having a right quality management software system. “Only companies with integrated approach to management and technology can successfully deliver Quality Management Systems as they can understand the business rules better and let the technology follow these business rules”, he further added.
In other presentation, Dr. Rabiah informed that SOIETZ was a government entity mandated, under a legislation passed in 2001, with the objective of developing and supervising industrial lands in the Kingdom. Its mission was to undertake the regulation and promotion of Industrial Estates and Technology Zones in the Kingdom, both on public and private lands and to encourage the private sectors to get involved in the development, operation and maintenance of the same. He informed that the newly planned industrial estates included: a large estate in Sudayr, a 2nd Estate in Jeddah, one in Jazan and the other one in Arar. He further added that the following Technology Zones were also in progress, namely: King Abdullah Science Park (KASP), Information Technology and Communication Center (ITCC), and King Saud University Science Park (KSSP). According to him, they were designed to facilitate production and commercialization of advanced technologies by forging synergies among research centers, educational institutions, and technology-based companies. According to him the tenants of these Technology Zones would be mostly small companies pursuing an ambitious growth strategy based on the development and commercialization of new technologies.
Earlier on the General Secretary of IEP-SAC Prof. DR. Nazar Malik had opened the Seminar, and the Exhibition, with his report on IEP-SAC performance during the past one year. He also presented a brief introduction of IEP-SAC, which represented the engineers’ fraternity in Saudi Arabia. It was a non-political and non-profit organization dedicated to showcasing professional works and achievements of the Pakistani engineers living and working in Saudi Arabia. It was also mandated to work towards updating professional knowledge of the engineers’ fraternity in the Kingdom besides facilitating healthy communication and comradeship amongst them. A report from the Eastern Province center by Engr. Rizwan Ahmed and the Western Province center report by Engr. Jaleel Hasan then followed. The Chairman IEP-SAC Engr. Masood Khan earnestly thanked the speakers and the attendees and also thanked the members of the local press corps present. Memento shields were presented to the speakers for their excellent presentations and to two IEP-SAC members namely Engr. Abdul Waheed Mir and Engr. Saifullah Saleem for their relentless services for IEP-SAC. As usual a Journal was also brought out showcasing technical papers from the member engineers and the profiles & the contact coordinates of all member engineers of IEP-SAC. The program concluded with a sumptuous dinner.
