The state-owned Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region focused venture capital fund eWTP Arabia has entered into a partnership deal with the Chinese cloud computing company Alibaba Cloud to offer high-performance services in the Kingdom.
Alibaba Cloud, a subsidiary of Chinese multinational tech company Alibaba Group Holding Limited offers cloud computing services to online businesses. The firm headquartered in Singapore is planning to make investments of up to $500 million in the Kingdom over the next five years as part of the partnership deal.
Under the deal, Alibaba Cloud will set up its office in Riyadh to provide services and training to local customers. The investment will also bring a wide range of resources to support sustainability and ensure localization.
“This collaboration is a significant milestone for STC in our efforts to contribute to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 by introducing a trusted cloud service partner,” Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha stated.
Faisal Al-Khamisi, chairman of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity Programming and Drones, stated that such partnerships would help Saudi Arabia to become one of the most innovative countries in the world.
“It’s pivotal for companies to deploy and maintain an elastic, scalable and secure IT infrastructure to keep competitive and innovative in the digital era. We are excited to partner with Alibaba Cloud to bring their expertise to our customers,” said Nasser Bin Sulaiman Al-Nasser, CEO of STC Group.
Jeff Zhang President Alibaba Cloud Intelligence
“Saudi Arabia is a strategic market for us, Alibaba Cloud is committed to delivering our best-in-class services and solutions, as well as our business practices in digital transformation to the partners and customers we work within the Kingdom.”
“We are very proud and thankful to bring both these great companies together with the support of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity Programming and Drones,” Jerry Li, managing partner of eWTP Arabia Fund added.
In recent years Saudi Arabia has taken some significant steps to secure its leadership in offering cloud computing technology operations. Last week, Saudi Aramco Development Company and Google Cloud entered into a partnership deal to provide services to customers in the Kingdom.
According to Aramco, Google Cloud will set up and operate a new cloud region in Saudi Arabia and a new company will be established to offer cloud solutions and services to customers.
