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 wins Saudi approval for national digital twin platform
Naver Head of Strategic Business Chae Seon-ju, second row left, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Municipalities and Housing Majed Al-Hogail, second row right, NHC Innovation CEO Rayan Alaql, front row right, and Naver Cloud Head of Global DX & Innovation Han Sang-young pose after signing an agreement in May 2025 to establish Naver Innovation, a joint venture. Courtesy of Naver Cloud.
By Lee Gyu-lee
Naver has secured official approval for its cloud-based digital twin platform as Saudi Arabia’s national standard platform for local governments, opening the door for the tech giant to expand its smart city technology across the country.
The company announced on Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s Digital Government Authority (DGA) approved its platform for local government deployments, establishing a common technology framework for urban planning, infrastructure management, public safety and municipal operations.
Naver said the approval marks a rare case of a Korean tech company receiving official recognition from a foreign government agency, paving the way for it to expand its technology across Saudi Arabia just three years after winning its initial project in the country in 2023.
Following DGA approval, the country’s Ministry of Municipalities and Housing issued an official notice urging local governments to prioritize Naver’s platform for smart city and digital twin projects, aiming to avoid duplicative investments and establish unified technology standards and methodologies nationwide.
The move is intended to bring digital twin and digital urban planning initiatives by municipalities across Saudi Arabia under a unified system. The government plans to use Naver’s platform to shift municipal administration toward data-driven systems while enabling local governments to share data and operational experience.
“The adoption as a national standard is significant because it validates not only Naver’s technological capabilities but also the results we have demonstrated and the trust we have built locally,” Chae Seon-ju, Naver’s head of strategic business and innovation division, said.
“Building on this, we will apply Naver’s technological capabilities in digital twins, AI and cloud computing to urban infrastructure development across Saudi Arabia and further strengthen our position as a key technology partner supporting digital transformation in the Middle East.”
Naver won a contract from the country’s ministry in October 2023 to build a digital twin platform covering major Saudi cities.
In 2025, it completed digital twin systems for Mecca, Medina and Jeddah, covering more than 920,000 buildings across 6,800 square kilometers — more than 11 times the area of Seoul. The project laid the groundwork for expanding the technology nationwide.
With the platform now designated as a national standard, Naver plans to deepen its collaboration with the Saudi government and local partners. It will also accelerate the development of technologies tailored to the local market, drawing on its accumulated expertise and data from large-scale urban digital twin projects.