AT&T Corp plans to invest over $300m in joint ventures with three local companies as part of Saudi Arabia’s offset programme, the Arabic daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported: Riyadh-based Advanced Electronics, International Engineering Systems and the Saudi Cables Co are leading candidates for partnership; negotiations will be completed by the end of the year; the offset is for that $4,000m deal with Saudi Arabia that AT&T signed on August 13, under which the Kingdom will have 1.5m new digital lines and 200,000 mobile lines; Saudi Arabia’s economic offset programme requires foreign companies that win major deals in Saudi Arabia to transfer back about one third of the value of the contract in high-tech projects with Saudi partners; it is not clear from the local report what other projects AT&T may be contemplating.
