Contact Information: Press Relations: Robyn Jenkins-Blum 408.853.9848 rojenkin@cisco.com Investor Relations: Laura Graves 408.526.6521 lagraves@cisco.com
Cisco to Provide US$45M (RMB 300M) to Support Rebuilding Efforts in China's Earthquake-Affected Sichuan Province
Contribution Focused on Helping to Rebuild Education and Healthcare Through 21st Century Technology Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships
Cisco Encourages Global Public and Private Sector to Join in Rebuilding Efforts
| Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
CHENGDU, CHINA--(Marketwire - July 1, 2008) - Cisco (NASDAQ : CSCO ) today announced a US
$45 million (RMB 300M) three-year commitment to support reconstruction
efforts in China's Sichuan Province, which was hit on May 12th by one of
the most devastating earthquakes in China's history. Cisco made this
commitment today during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU)
overseen by Sichuan Governor Jiang Jufeng and Cisco Chairman and CEO John
Chambers.
In addition to employee engagement in relief efforts during the
earthquake's immediate aftermath, a Cisco team has been in China for
several weeks meeting with national, provincial and local officials to
better understand the situation and learn how Cisco can best offer
long-term rebuilding assistance. This week, Chambers and other U.S.
private and public sector leaders are in China as members of a U.S.
Business Roundtable fact-finding delegation under the auspices of the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Chinese
Government.
Resulting from these discussions, Cisco and Chinese business, government
and NGO leaders have identified areas where Cisco will commit its
collaborative networking solutions, human expertise and resources towards
reconstruction and redevelopment in Sichuan. The initiatives outlined in
today's MOU focus on working with public-private partnerships to help
develop 21st century education and healthcare models, enabled by
collaborative networked information technology and communications. These
initiatives have been developed to help bridge the gap between urban and
rural areas, using 21st century connectivity to help more broadly share the
best possible education and healthcare resources. These 21st century
healthcare and education models will be designed with the potential for
replication and scaling in countries around the world.
"As we witnessed firsthand the unimaginable destruction and spoke with
those who have lost so much, it was impossible not to feel an urgency to
help in the rebuilding and sustainability efforts," said John Chambers.
"Even in the face of such terrible devastation, this clearly is a resilient
citizenry and a country that is committed to both rapidly rebuilding as
well as looking to the future. It would be an honor to play even a small
supporting role in these efforts."
"We have been deeply moved by the unwavering courage and resilience of the
Sichuan people, as well as the leadership demonstrated by national,
provincial and local government in the face of this tragic natural
disaster," continued Chambers. "Cisco has always had a strong culture of
social responsibility; and we believe it is our duty to assist in the
redevelopment efforts. Since our initial resource and financial donations
in the days immediately following the earthquake, we have been working
closely with China's citizens, businesses, national, provincial and local
leaders to assess how Cisco can best contribute to the rebuilding and
sustainability efforts now underway. Cisco's commitment is to make a
long-term and lasting public-private partnership contribution to a 21st
century education and health care system."
Healthcare efforts outlined in today's MOU will build on the foundation of
Sichuan's Health 2020 initiative. Cisco will work in collaboration with
healthcare officials to develop a network of connected hospitals and
healthcare solutions. Healthcare providers will be able to collaborate
across the province, with access to online patient health records and other
key innovative solutions that will help deliver higher quality care.
Cisco's education initiatives will be designed to support students and
teachers to increase their competitiveness in a global marketplace, with a
focus on the collaborative development of 21st century schools and
education models. In addition to academic skills, this education model
will focus on teacher training and the development of 21st century skills
-- including collaboration, problem solving, teamwork and communication --
and will be enabled by leading-edge collaborative technologies.
The company previously announced it has donated in excess of US $2.5
million raised from Cisco, the Cisco Foundation, and Cisco employees.
Today's commitment builds on Cisco's past corporate social responsibility
responses to humanitarian disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in the
United States in 2005 and the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004.
Cisco first established operations in China in 1994 and now employs more
than 3,000 staff in sales, customer support and service, research and
development, business process outsourcing, IT outsourcing, Cisco Capital
programs, and manufacturing. The company has 12 offices in China, a major
R&D facility in Shanghai, Scientific Atlanta R&D and manufacturing
facilities, and several WebEx development centers. In April 2008, Cisco
announced the next phase of its corporate strategy for China, marked by new
public-private collaborative programs within the country that deliver upon
its US $16 billion multi-year innovation and sustainability initiative
announced in late 2007.
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, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks of Cisco
Systems, Inc. in the U.S. 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