The agreement covers distribution in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates of BancTec's highly acclaimed IntelliScan and E-Series high-speed document scanning and sorting transports.

"Al-Falak has nearly three decades of successful experience delivering IT and communications solutions throughout the Middle East, and will be a strong partner as we seek to expand our presence in those markets," said Darren Riley, sales manager, EMEA Emerging Markets, BancTec. "Their strong market knowledge and extensive relationships, in concert with our enterprise-scale solutions, will deliver significant benefits for large organizations throughout the region."

"BancTec is a well-established provider of solutions that enhance, and reduce the cost of, document and payment processing operations," said Basel Humaidah, General Manager, Al-Falak. "We look forward to partnering with BancTec to extend the range of solutions we offer and further our involvement in the massive technology adoption initiatives being implemented by both government and the private sector in the region."

While oil is still the largest and most important industry in the regional economy, governments there have enacted measures in recent years to expand private sector growth in other areas--notably power generation, telecommunications, natural gas exploration, and petrochemicals--in order to decrease dependence on oil exports and increase employment options for the growing population.