Dan Scheinman, Senior Vice President of Legal and Government Affairs, met with President Clinton in September at the White House for the Net Aid web site launch.

NetAid New York, London and Geneva Concerts Generate Hits To Fight Extreme Poverty

World's Largest Web Site and Radio Broadcast Reach Millions UN Secretary-General Annan and Cisco Systems' Chambers Join Artists In "NetAid Unity Moment"

New York, London, and Geneva, October 9,1999 - NetAid today unleashed the vast power of the Internet to fight extreme poverty, bringing together for the first time world class entertainment with the world's greatest concentration of Internet technology, largest radio broadcast and widespread television distribution. Cisco Systems and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), creators of NetAid, expect today's concerts and ongoing web site to generate one billion hits against poverty and lead to millions of concrete actions including donations of time, expertise, goods or money.

Speaking at the kick-off of the Geneva concert, John Chambers, Cisco Systems President and CEO, said: "NetAid puts the power to fight extreme poverty online. It offers hope for a new day to the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty. Just as the Internet has reshaped international commerce, it can change the way anti-poverty efforts are arranged around the world from a women's cooperative in India to a group of family farmers in Sudan."

"In three days, there will officially be six billion human beings - and nearly half of them will have to survive on two dollars a day or less," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "The scale of misery that implies is beyond our imagination -- how many children unable to go to school; how many without clean water to drink or a place to sleep? All of us would like to change that if we could. And now every one of us can help change it, with a click of the mouse on the NetAid web site. There are no more excuses. Let's get on with it and bring on a new day."

The remarks by Chambers and Annan preceded the "NetAid Unity Moment", a unique technological feat when artists in New York, London and Geneva joined together to sing a new song, entitled New Day, that Wyclef Jean and Bono wrote to express the hopeful message of NetAid.

President Clinton makes first hit on Net Aid site.

Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said, "NetAid is a kind of development magnet designed to attract and build a whole new constituency of activists. It is where people with no prior connection to poverty can become empowered to care and take action."

NetAid already has achieved a number of historic milestones:

• World leaders including US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former South African President Nelson Mandela, Philippine President Joseph Estrada, and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung were among the first to hit the web site from their regions of the world.
• The NetAid web site, www.netaid.org , is the world's largest in scale. It has the capacity to handle 125,000 simultaneous live streams and one million hits per minute - a tenfold increase over existing sites. Built by KPMG in just 90 days, the content of the site is delivered by Akamai using a distributed network architecture that employs 1,500 servers in over 90 locations worldwide. The site can handle 1,000 secure e-payment transactions per second - one of the largest and most efficient e-commerce capacities ever developed. KPMG and Akamai are sponsors of NetAid.
• The NetAid concerts are the most widely broadcast event in history. Radio stations in132 countries are carrying the broadcast with the help of syndicator Radio Express. VH1 and MTV in the US and the BBC in the UK are carrying the concerts live; taped programs will air on television stations in 31 additional countries in the coming months with the help of syndicator NBD Television Limited. The concerts also are being webcast on two channels on www.netaid.org with the help of Real Networks.
• The collaboration of world class artists, producers and actors involved in the program is stunning in its breath and diversity. It includes:

Giants Stadium
The Black Crowes
Mary J. Blige
Busta'Rhymes
Cheb Mami
Sheryl Crow
Counting Crows
Wyclef Jean with Bono
Jewel
Jimmy Page
Puff Daddy
Sting
Zucchero

Wembley Stadium
Bryan Adams
David Bowie
Bush
Catatonia
The Corrs
The Eurythmics
George Michael
Stereophonics
Robbie Williams

Palais des Nations
Des'ree
Bryan Ferry
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Michael Kamen & Orchestra
Texas

Producers include David Goldberg, Harvey Goldsmith, Quincy Jones, Ken Kragen, Don Mischer, and Jeff Pollack who together have created many of the world's most significant social change events. Actors and actresses appearing on stage or in films include Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alfre Woodard, and David Boreanaz.

• · The collaboration for the development of the web site content included many of the world's foremost experts on poverty, representing 70 of the most effective United Nations and non-governmental anti-poverty organizations in the world. Today's entries are the seeds of what is to become the world's most comprehensive Yellow Pages for poverty eradication work including a global repository of best practices from every corner of the globe.

All of the funds raised through the NetAid web site will be disbursed to anti-poverty projects around the world through the NetAid Foundation, a non-profit organization that will be led by an international board of diverse individuals with longstanding commitments to poverty and humanitarian causes. Net proceeds from the concerts will be used to help specific populations in extreme poverty in Kosovo and African countries.

Cisco Systems has underwritten the costs for the NetAid concerts and paid approximately $12 million for the project's development and marketing. The Cisco Foundation also has announced that it will contribute $10 million to the NetAid Foundation. UNDP has provided most of the content for the www.netaid.org and will be responsible for the web site following the concerts.

Additional press materials are available at www.netaid.org.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.

Through a unique network of 134 country offices, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) helps people in 174 countries and territories to help themselves, focusing on poverty elimination, environmental regeneration, job creation and the advancement of women. In support of these goals, UNDP is frequently asked to assist in promoting sound governance and market development and to support rebuilding societies in the aftermath of war and humanitarian emergencies. For additional information visit: www.undp.org/dpa/index.html