Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Naver Cloud to form joint venture with Saudi Arabia's NHC
Naver Cloud Executive Vice President Han Sang-young, front row left, and NHC Innovation CEO Ryan Alaql, front row right, sign an agreement to establish a joint venture in Riyadh, Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of Naver Cloud
By Lee Gyu-lee
Naver Cloud has inked a deal with Saudi Arabia's National Housing Company (NHC) to establish a strategic joint venture, the company announced Wednesday.
The company and NHC’s digital subsidiary NHC Innovation will form a new joint venture, Naver Innovation, to introduce smart city technology and accelerate digital transformation in the public and residential sectors of Saudi Arabia.
The venture will mark the first business entity by Naver Arabia, which is the tech giant’s Middle East regional headquarters.
"We are honored to participate in the innovation process toward Saudi Arabia's digital transformation together with the local partner,” Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won said in the release.
“Naver Cloud will put its effort to cooperate in supporting Saudi Arabia to lead innovation in the smart city industry."
Naver Innovation’s primary task will focus on developing and operating a location-based all-in-one app that helps the country’s locals and tourists with overall daily life, including housing and transportation. It also plans to expand its digital twin platform-based businesses.
Currently, Naver’s digital twin platform is gearing up to launch in major cities across Saudi Arabia. The platform will provide advanced technology features for urban planning such as predicting floods and analyzing traffic and population distribution.
“Through this new joint venture, both companies expect Saudi Arabia to establish itself as a leading country in the digital twin field in the long term by building data-based smart cities that are sustainable,” Naver Cloud said.
NHC Innovation CEO Ryan Alaql said that this partnership not only allows Saudi Arabia to adopt world-class technology but also shows its commitment to introduce localized solutions that are tailored to meet the local community’s needs.
With the latest joint venture, Naver Cloud has scouted an opportunity to expand its business in the Middle East with its cutting-edge technology.
Based on the technology it built and operates in Korea, the company plans to provide services, such as making reservations, payment and personalization technologies, after optimizing them to suit Saudi Arabia's local and cultural infrastructure.
Earlier in November, Naver Cloud and NHC signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture at Cityscape Global 2024, the world's largest real estate exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
After winning a bid for the digital twin platform project from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing in October 2023, Naver has been building digital twin platforms for major cities in the country since last year.