Afghanistans Leading Integrated Media Company Moby Group Establishes Regional Headquarters In Dubai Studio City

Dubai Studio City (DSC), a member of TECOM Investments Media Cluster, today announced Moby Group, Afghanistan’s leading privately owned and integrated media company, has established its regional headquarters in the dedicated free zone for film and broadcast production industries.

Established in 2002, the Moby Group has spearheaded significant changes in the media landscape and continues to drive innovative development of projects that reach, educate and entertain through its media, content and production companies.

The Moby Group dominates the Afghan media market with a combined 80 per cent market share. Its Tolo TV and Lemar TV lead the Afghan television market with over 60 per cent audience reach, while Arman FM is the most popular entertainment radio station in Afghanistan.

Jamal Al Sharif, Managing Director, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Media City, said: “We are privileged to welcome the Moby Group to Dubai Studio City. The dedicated media cluster offers complete technical and community infrastructure that caters to the film, TV, radio production and broadcast sectors. We are confident the world-class facilities will enable our business partner to effectively carry out all stages of production work.”

Dubai’s location and sophisticated communications infrastructure complement Moby’s active business interests in countries across the region and use of advanced technology in its operations. Headquartered in Kabul, the company currently has 15 bureaus throughout Afghanistan with offices in Washington DC.

Saad Mohseni, Chairman, Moby Group, said: "Since we set up base five years ago in Dubai, we have rapidly grown out of our small office in Dubai Media City. The Dubai Studio City provides the ideal base for our expanding media operations. We are excited about moving to a location that has the facilities and equipment necessary for our production requirements and look forward to becoming part of this new media hub in Dubai."

Spread over an area of 22 million sq ft, Dubai Studio City features 14 fully equipped sound stages, a 3.5 million sq ft back lot for outdoor shooting, commercial offices, pre-built studios, a business centre and post-production studios. The development includes three sound stages – one 15,000 sq ft unit and two units of 25,000 sq ft each.

TECOM Investments’ media entities – Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio City and International Media Production Zone – provide a complete value chain of specialised offerings that have created an established community hub for the media and content creation industries in the region.
 

Siegel+Gale Establishes Brand for dus Revolutionary Digital Experience Anayou.com

NEW YORK and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ — Global strategic branding firm Siegel+Gale, www.siegelgale.com, today announced the development of the strategic brand platform, name, identity and user experience design for telecom operator du’s new trilingual (Arabic, English and French) mobile web platform, anayou.com.

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With its beta testing launch on October 13th, anayou.com combines the best elements of social networking and e-commerce–providing unique opportunities for its Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) consumers to interact with friends, shop, engage in sports and entertainment and other digital mobile communications. Meant to facilitate a one-stop web and mobile experience for Arabia from Arabia, anayou’s brand promise, \\\”More of your world,\\\” communicates the platform’s ability to create a personalized digital experience at any time and any place.

\\\”When du approached us with this groundbreaking digital concept, we knew it was an opportunity to not only build a leading regional brand, but to help shape the online and mobile experience for consumers across MENA,\\\” says Tarek Sultani, managing director, Siegel+Gale. \\\”To be successful, it needed to be built from a strategic brand platform and deliver an engaging user experience–simply, consistently and regardless of language or platform–synching content from your life online, at home and all the other mobile devices we carry today.\\\”

Using the brand strategy as a foundation, Siegel+Gale also developed the digital voice, name and visual identity for the online destination. Naming experts acknowledged the need for a compelling name that represented 21st century digital Arabia and resonated with both English and Arabic speakers. The name anayou combines Arabic ’ana’ (me) and English you to reflect the connectedness of the digital world.

The accompanying logo and visual identity system relays the brand promise and illustrates the modern and dynamic Arabic feel the brand emits across screens for web, mobile and TV.

Siegel+Gale created an empowering and flexible user experience that met the brand promise and users’ needs in a way that was simple, fun and personally relevant. User personas helped prioritize user needs, which led to the development of wire frames designed to deliver anayou’s complex features and multi-platform functionality in the simplest way possible.

The beta launch of anayou is an opportunity for users from around the region to experience the brand and give feedback on what can be done to make www.anayou.com a place of their own.

About Siegel+Gale
Siegel+Gale ( www.siegelgale.com) is a global strategic branding firm committed to building world-class brands through elegantly simple, unexpectedly fresh strategies, stories and experiences. With Simple is Smart as its operating philosophy, Siegel+Gale delivers powerful services in brand development, identity design, simplification, research and analytics, and digital strategy.

Since its founding by branding pioneer Alan Siegel in 1969, Siegel+Gale has helped drive business results for brands such as Aetna, American Express, Bank of America, China Youth Development Foundation, Dell, Dow Chemical Company, The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, The Internal Revenue Service, The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Microsoft, Motorola, Pfizer, SAP, Sony PlayStation, Yahoo! and the YMCA.

Siegel+Gale has offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Hamburg, Dubai, Shanghai and Beijing and strategic partnerships around the world as a member of the Omnicom Group of companies ( www.omnicomgroup.com).

Contact:
Camille Priselac
CooperKatz for Siegel+Gale
917.595.3042

Cable&Wireless Worldwide Establishes Middle East Presence At Dubai Internet City

World leading critical communications provider, Cable&Wireless Worldwide has announced the opening of its new regional headquarters at Dubai Internet City (DIC), the region’s largest managed ICT business park and a member of TECOM Investments.

Following a three year presence in the region, the strategic move will allow C&W Worldwide to better serve its growing customer base in the Middle East and Africa and follows the company’s deployment of an extensive telecommunications network  across the Middle East in 2008. This included Points of Presences (PoPs) in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Manama, connecting customers based in the region back into the MPLS(Multiprotocol Label Switching) network. Since the deployment, C&W Worldwide has been providing connectivity to global enterprise customers including HSBC.

Malek Al Malek, Managing Director, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource Zone, said: “The region continues to build a telecommunications infrastructure with a view to modernising a business environment that can encourage a healthy flow of investment.

“It brings us great honour to have global telecom player Cable&Wireless Worldwide on board. The new office at DIC comes as further evidence of the company’s continuing success and commitment to the region. We look forward to working closely together, particularly on ways the telco industry can play a more strategic role in boosting the greater economy.”

He added, “Setting up their regional headquarters in DIC will allow close proximity to all clients across Middle East and Africa. Customers and partners in the region will be able to easily access services and technologies from Cable&Wireless.”

Through its next-generation network, C&W Worldwide provides improved services and support to meet the needs of its enterprise customers moving operations to the booming Middle East market. The services will also enable C&W Worldwide’s customers to route increased levels of data traffic in the EMEA region, where internet usage is expected to grow substantially.

Jim Marsh, Chief Executive Officer, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, said: “This investment further strengthens our resolve and ability to serve our enterprise customers on a global scale. We are committed to providing the best levels of service and aim to meet the needs of our customers in growing markets, such as the Middle East and Africa. With our solid understanding of this market, we will provide local customers with relevant SLAs in a manner very different to those seen elsewhere in the world.”

C&W Worldwide has strong partnerships in the region with leading local telecommunications companies, allowing it to connect customers to their other facilities around the world with seamless, consistent services. C&W Worldwide’s global network provides multinational companies operating in the Middle East region with access to an advanced portfolio of Internet Protocol (IP) based managed communications services including hosting, security and worldwide connectivity. Ghassan Latif has been appointed to lead C&W Worldwide’s efforts in the region.

Home to many Fortune 500 companies as well as more than 1,300 specialized industry leaders from diverse segments of the information and communication technology sectors, Dubai Internet City has emerged as one of the largest ICT clusters in the world, providing the backbone to the industry while catering to the region’s increasing focus as a knowledge-economy.

3W Networks Establishes Regional Engineering Centre Of Excellence At Dubai Silicon Oasis

Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA) today announced 3W Networks, one of the region’s premier systems integrators specializing in providing Turnkey Communication, Safety and Security solutions to the oil and gas, power utilities, telecom operators, transport and fibre optic infrastructure sectors, will establish its Regional Engineering Centre of Excellence within the integrated free zone technology park.

3W Networks operations at DSO will combine High Value Systems Design and Engineering, 24/7 Technical Assistance and Product Assembly. The 1350-sq metre office premises at DSO will host product specialists, engineers and technicians to provide customized solutions that meet the highest international standards.

Shahla Ahmed Abdul Razak, Deputy CEO – Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, said: “We are pleased to welcome 3W Networks, who chose Dubai Silicon Oasis as their preferred location to carry out their operations. DSO is considered an attractive location by many multinational companies in the field of technology. Our excellent infrastructure and facilities which is totally focused on providing top quality services to clients, is no doubt one of our major competitive advantages.”

Walid Gamali, CEO, 3W Networks, said: “Our strategic choice to set up offices at Dubai Silicon Oasis is an essential part of our regional expansion plan and aligns with our mission to provide advanced, affordable solutions that are engineered and supported locally. Our new premises will have state of the art systems integration facilities, equipped to stage full scale integrated factory acceptance tests of various equipments prior to installation at the project site.

“The UAE and the region present numerous business opportunities and we aim to make sure that our operational infrastructure meets our future growth objectives. Our expert staff based at DSO will continue to offer timely services to our regional clients in addition to providing seamless technical support services to our various offices across the Middle East and Africa.”

3W Networks offers clients a comprehensive range of turnkey communication solutions to suit any applications involving wireline and wireless transmission, voice and data, safety, security and outside plant infrastructure. An ISO9001 certified company; 3W Networks has a team of energetic and dedicated professionals with broad-based experience focusing on providing cost effective, innovative and reliable solutions. 3W Networks has offices in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Muscat, Dhahran, Cairo, Singapore, Seoul and Melbourne. The company’s solutions are deployed in the most prestigious names in the region.

Dubai Silicon Oasis is a wholly-owned entity of the Government of Dubai and operates as a free zone technology park for the semiconductor, microelectronic and other high technology-based companies looking to set up their regional headquarters and R&D facilities in the Middle East and Africa region.
 

Emaar Retail Establishes Global Imprint In Entertainment And Retail Sectors

Emaar Retail, the entertainment and retail subsidiary of Emaar, has established a global imprint in the entertainment industry in less than a year, through key partnerships spanning the world, from Mexico to Singapore and Italy to Japan.

Bringing an unmatched portfolio of pioneering entertainment attractions to the Middle East region, Emaar Retail will make strategic expansions globally in line with the geographic growth of Emaar Properties, to build self-contained lifestyle environments.

Headlining Emaar Retail’s achievements in the past one year, the company created several hundred new jobs in the entertainment sector. This was led by the opening of Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, Dubai Ice Rink, SEGA Republic, KidZania® and Reel Cinemas, all based at The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping centre. The opening of these world-class leisure attractions is also marked by partnerships with market-leading organisations.

The entertainment precinct welcomed more than 3 million visitors to its various attractions since their opening in phases, setting an industry milestone in visitor turnout.

Mr Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer, Emaar Retail, said: “In less than one year, Emaar Retail has successfully built an impressive track record in the region’s leisure and entertainment sector. This was led through global and regional partnerships, which complement the innovative concepts that the company has brought to the Middle East.”

He added: “Our partnerships will further power Emaar Retail’s growth story as we explore new opportunities in the entertainment and retail sector across the geographic footprint of Emaar in the Middle East & North Africa region and other growth markets,. Emaar Retail has also served as a driver for the domestic economy by creating several hundred new jobs and supporting tourism and retail – two of the vital sectors that contribute significantly to the GDP.”

Emaar Retail joined hands with Oceanis Australia Group, specialists in developing and operating aquariums around the world, to develop the largest suspended aquarium in the world, Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo.

Partnering with SEGA Corporation, Japan’s leading indoor theme park developer, Emaar Retail opened the Middle East’s first and largest of its kind SEGA indoor theme park, the 76,000 square foot SEGA Republic.

Emaar Retail recently opened KidZania® Dubai, an award-winning children’s ‘edutainment’ concept from Mexico, where the company also created history with the largest of its corporate partnerships in the region. Emaar Retail has joined hands with over 30 global leading brands including Emirates Airline. These organizations – market leaders and pioneers in their sector – offer real-world environments in the 80,000 square foot attraction where children participate in over 70 professional role-play experiences.

The 22-screen Reel Cinemas is the UAE’s largest megaplex developed by Emaar Retail with Singapore-based Cathay Organisation Holdings Ltd. The cinema brings the Hollywood Chic concept of design to the region, in addition to introducing The Picturehouse, a dedicated cinema for arthouse movies. Reel Cinemas is also due to open its 6-screen cineplex at Dubai Marina Mall later this year.

Another attraction at The Dubai Mall, the Olympic-sized Dubai Ice Rink employs state-of-the-art technologies and serves as a model for indoor ice rink developments.

In a significant milestone, Emaar Retail also partnered with Giorgio Armani S.p.A to open the flagship store of Armani/Casa in The Dubai Mall, the first of many to open in the region. The Armani/Casa store offers a full collection of furniture, accessories, fabrics, ornaments and lighting as well as modular bathroom arrangements and kitchen systems – all personally designed by Mr Giorgio Armani, the fashion legend.

“These tie-ups are strategic investments for the future, and will benchmark Emaar Retail as the premier partner of choice for entertainment providers – across films, indoor leisure and luxury retail,” added Mr Amiri.

Mourjan Marinas IGY Establishes A Strategic Presence In The Lucrative Black Sea Marina Market

Mourjan Marinas IGY, the luxury developer and manager of marinas and yachting lifestyle destinations, announced that it has signed a binding agreement with Russian company Sochi Grand Marina, part of leading Russian shipping company, Sovcomflot.

The agreement will see Mourjan Marinas IGY undertaking one of the most prestigious marina development contracts in this highly lucrative market with the transformation of the port of Sochi. A new mixed use development at Sochi, including a over 300 yacht marina, will help this strategically placed Black Sea port prepare for its role as host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Sochi Grand Marina has commissioned Mourjan Marinas IGY to develop both the new marina and land-based components at the Sochi development. This announcement follows a 12 month period of intense design, technical and business planning. The new vibrant city centre destination at Sochi seaport will also incorporate a long-distance passenger cruise terminal as well as high quality retail, residential and hotel accommodation, catering to the large influx of Olympic related tourism to this historic seafront recreational destination.

The revitalised seaport will be an impressive and welcoming point of arrival for visitors to the city for the 2014 Winter Olympics. It will provide the best international-standard tourist facilities, whilst its carefully balanced mix of functions will become a year-round destination for city residents.

Michael Horrigan, CEO of Mourjan Marinas IGY, said:
“When we formed Mourjan Marinas IGY we said we were focused on a growth strategy and this agreement is a really exciting development for us. The Russian market has great potential for marine development and we are pleased to be working with Sochi Grand Marina on what will be a dramatic transformation of the port of Sochi as it prepares for the 2014 Winter Olympics and its long-term future. This development will set benchmarks in the region and we proud to be part of it.”

Konstantin Sakharov, CEO of Sochi Grand Marina, said:

“The reconstruction of the Sochi seaport is a truly unique project for the Russian Federation territory and the revival of the seaport and coastline will be a great accomplishment for the region. The project includes the waterworks construction, a new passenger terminal building, reconstruction of the original Marine Station building as well as the build and further exploitation of the infrastructure of the coastal port.”

“We are providing the Sochi port with a beautiful first-class yacht marina which will be the first professional yacht marina unique for the Black Sea coast. Mourjan Marinas IGY is our chosen partner for this project as their extensive experience in marina development in the Middle East and Europe serves us well for this complex project.’’

Sochi Seaport is a major strategic milestone in Mourjan Marinas IGY commitment to the Russian marina market and specifically the Black Sea coast line around Sochi. Adjacent to the major cruise terminal as well as the commercial centre of Sochi, the project will feature luxury hotels, a retail complex and a marina clubhouse representing a prestigious development that well represents the high quality market niche that Mourjan Marinas IGY projects target. The partnership with Sochi Grand Marina aligns Mourjan Marinas IGY with a Russian company that is equally focused on facilities that represent the best in international standards for design, safety and service.
 

RTA Establishes Units To Oversee Safety & Protection Of Dubai Metro

H.E. Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has approved a system where Safety Regulation and Planning Dep’t at RTA’s Strategy & Corporate Governance Sector will oversee the safety and protection of trains in Dubai as a step to ensure the safety of all rail users & rail employees in the emirate.

"This step is part of continuous initiatives launched by the RTA to raise the profile of infrastructure facilities in the emirate of Dubai, headed by Dubai Metro, to the highest levels of safety. The new system puts Dubai Metro under the umbrella of an effective and integrated transport planning system in the emirate of Dubai. The system also includes establishing & assessing technical standards & rail safety, developing & evaluating safety rules of rail operators, investigating rail accidents, and protecting all rail properties in the emirate from the risks associated with activities in the neighbourhood" said Al Tayer.

He added: "According to the new system, two separate organizational units have been established. One of them will attend to transport planning, setting technical standards, and protecting trains, while the other will oversee the safety of trains and related operational processes. Upon completion of successful assessment of safety by RTA specialist safety personnel, RTA will issue certification to the company operating Dubai Metro covering safety position and operational safety. RTA will deploy a team of inspectors to enforce the implementation of safety standards once Dubai Metro starts operation, and will also be ready to cope with emergency cases.

Al Tayer further added: "Safety Regulation and Planning Dep’t will discharge these tasks at the highest international standards applicable in rail industry. Safety assessment standards have been developed in coordination with Office of Rail Regulation in the UK. RTA had also engaged with world-class safety consultants boasting rich experience in framing up Dubai Metro Safety Standards.

"Rail Agency will protect all properties of Dubai Metro through close monitoring & surveillance of all activities that might cause damage to Dubai Metro properties. The Agency is entitled to issue orders to stop activities which pose danger to Dubai Metro or rail properties, serve violators with notices to comply with safety requirements, and issue them with offence tickets " continued Al Tayer.

It is note-worthy that in the second quarter of 2008 RTA established an independent department called "Safety Regulation and Planning Department" under Strategy & Corporate Governance Sector and tasked it with key four tasks: planning & policies; covering developing policies and legislations related to health, safety and environment, and drawing up plans & procedures related to health, safety & environment in accordance with the best global standards. It also outlines the objectives and KPIs of health, safety & environment, develops rail transport safety standards, prepares databases of lessons learned from accidents, compiles annual safety reports, and ensures carrying out studies & development researches with the aim to improving safety.

RTA has also established two Quality, Health, Safety & Environment (QHSE) departments at Traffic & Roads Agency and Rail Agency, besides QHSE offices established in the rest of RTA agencies. This underscores RTA intention to enhance safety measures at all projects and transportation systems undertaken by the RTA using specialized work manuals and in accordance with a well-defined technical methodology.