Alawy seeks Technology Partners, Standards, on Egypt trip
June 3, 2002

Alawy, LLC, a software development firm that specializes in developing custom Arabic language software and Internet applications for companies with business interests in the Middle East, was one of seven American companies invited to attend the Third Annual U.S. I.T. Trade Mission to Egypt. The mission, hosted at the Conrad Hotel in Cairo, Egypt from May 12-16, was organized by the International Executive Service Corps (IESC) and sponsored by USAID.

Rachel Alawy, Vice President of Business Development for Alawy said that the purpose of the company's visit to Cairo, Egypt was not necessarily to look for clients, but instead to forge bonds with Egyptian I.T. companies. "We want to build equitable partnerships," she said.

Alawy's target market is American companies who want to better serve their Arabic-speaking clients with language specific I.T. services. "While Alawy has been approached to localize software developed by our clients, that is not the full extent of our services. We are a software development company, and that means that we also architect and build stand-alone and web applications to serve the unique needs of both the Arabic language and Arab business practices," Ms. Alawy said.

The company was in Egypt to search out business partnerships with Egyptian technology companies, and was pleasantly surprised with what they found. "We expected to find companies nearly exclusively using Microsoft development tools - technologies we would rather avoid. Instead, we were pleased to find that there are companies emphasizing Java, Linux/UNIX and Apache technologies. We are working out agreements with these to collaborate on future software development projects," Mr. Ahmed Alawy, Alawy's CEO and Chief Product Architect, stated.

Alawy also used the Egypt trip to test the climate for establishing a forum for standardizing Arabic software development practices. The company is interested in pursuing the goal of standardization as a vehicle for advancing both native and localized Arabic language technologies.

"I was told it would be difficult, requiring participation and cooperation from the public, private and academic sectors, but I'm heartened to see that there has been momentum in recent years to address this important issue. There are two issues to be addressed before we can start seeing results. The first is that we have to move beyond what has been done in the past - regional initiatives and closed standards. Second, the initiative needs to be fostered by a transnational, non-competitive organization like a bank, or trans-governmental organization. It requires high-profile backing," said Ms. Alawy.

# # #

This release was published on:
AMEInfo, the "Ultimate Middle East Business Resource"
Multilingual Computing & Technology Magazine