Knowledge Economic City and Cisco Team Up to Develop World-Class Connected City

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA--(Marketwire - January 20, 2008) - Sheikh Ibrahim M. Alissa of Madinah Knowledge Economic City (KEC) and Mr. John Chambers, chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), today confirmed a strategic agreement has been finalized for the infrastructure development of the five-million-square-meter "smart city" project. The project is designed to attract global information and communications technology (ICT) firms who wish to establish operations and research-and-development facilities in Saudi, as well as creating more than 20,000 jobs within the city. Residents should benefit as well, with the initiative providing an attractive and interconnected living environment.

The Knowledge Economic City's expected aggregated investment is approximately US$8 billion in the overall development of the city. As part of its Connected Real Estate initiative, Cisco will provide the network architecture for the city. All buildings in KEC will be interconnected and can be managed over a highly secure Internet Protocol (IP) network, allowing for centralized management and reduced operational costs for the city. The city's network will facilitate data, voice, video and mobile communications across commercial and residential buildings.

KEC Chairman Sheikh Ibrahim M. Alissa, CEO Tahir Bawazir, and CTO Mohammad Shah were all present as well as Dr Sami Baroum managing director of Savola Co., a major shareholder in KEC.

"Smart cities rely on a being able to connect -- from basic high-speed connectivity to connected real estate -- and then complementing with value-added services for businesses and residents," said Sheikh Ibrahim M. Alissa, chairman of KEC. "Teaming up with Cisco will help us differentiate the Knowledge Economic City with a world-class infrastructure that will help businesses reduce capital and operating expenses by being able to have more visibility across their locations and operations.

"We are committed to boosting the Saudi economy by attracting foreign direct investments, creating jobs and encouraging Muslim scientists to relocate to Saudi by providing them with the right working and living conditions," the Sheikh added.

"Smart cities rely on a combination of connectivity, connected real estate and value-added services for businesses and residents," said Tahir Bawazeer CEO of KEC. "Collaborating with Cisco will help us differentiate the Knowledge Economic City with world-class smart infrastructure that will help businesses reduce capital expenditure and operating expenses."

Knowledge Economic City Chief Technical Officer Mr. Mohammad Shah said that upon signing, KEC can embark on the build and design of infrastructure to help create the envisioned world-class 'smart city' KEC is to become.

"The Knowledge City project in Saudi Arabia will demonstrate how technology innovations can bring about new levels of development of brand new cities that will help attract knowledge industries and investments while favorably impacting management and operational costs," said Wim Elfrink, executive vice president and chief globalisation officer for Cisco. "Cisco's Connected Real Estate initiative, developed to be a globally replicable model, has the potential to play a major role in transforming real estate developments in emerging economies."

To further develop the human capital in Saudi Arabia, Cisco is also committed to establishing the Cisco Networking Academy within the Knowledge Economic City to help train skilled professionals to design and maintain networks. Academies will play a key role in helping to address the shortfall of local technology talent in the Kingdom.

About Knowledge Economic City Al Madinah (KEC)

KEC Madinah is one of four economic cities being developed in Saudi Arabia to boost regional development and provide employment for the country's growing population by focusing on Intellectual Property, Knowledge-Based Industries, Medical, Hospitality, Tourism and Multi-Media.

The project is located at Al-Madinah, the home of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) where the Holy Quran was compiled. The project has special significance for Muslims throughout the world because of its location.

Knowledge Economic City is designed as a project that will position Saudi Arabia and young Saudi Arabian entrepreneurs as internationally respected leaders in knowledge based industries and aims to attract and develop talent from around the world. It will provide them with opportunities on a global scale while providing investors and entrepreneurs with infrastructure, opportunity, a unique pool of talent and the potential for a healthy return on investment.

More than 20,000 jobs and accommodation for about 150,000 people will be created by the project which will have an aggregated investment of more than SR30 billion and take up to 8-10 years to complete.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in emerging markets is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Systems and Networking Academy are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

For direct RSS Feeds of all Cisco news, please visit "News@Cisco" at the following link:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

Contact Information: Press: Jehan AbdulKarim +966 12183072 jabdulka@cisco.com Industry Analysts: Sharon Robinson +27 (0)21 4134577 sharobin@cisco.com Investor Relations: Andreas Goldau +44 208 824 8209 agoldau@cisco.com