Saudi gov't, Huawei ink deal to boost kingdom's digital transformation

RIYADH, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi Arabian government and Chinese tech giant Huawei have signed an ICT cooperation deal aiming to fast-forward the kingdom's digital transformation, the company announced Sunday.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was recently reached with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, said a Huawei statement.

Under the deal, the two sides would jointly build ultrafast broadband infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and launched in 2023 the first "10Gbps Society" pilot region, so as to expedite the kingdom's digital transformation under the framework of the Saudi Vision 2030, it noted.

The two sides would also support the local digital enterprises working on projects of smart cities, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, gaming, financial technology, e-commerce, and blockchain, while helping to expand the cloud capacities of small and medium-sized enterprises.

"Our company, as an ICT infrastructure and smart terminals provider in Saudi Arabia and its long-term partner, wishes to back the kingdom's ICT ambition with our expertise and experience," Xiang Yi, president of Huawei Middle East and Central Asia Region, was quoted by the statement as saying.

With the support of the ministry, Huawei would build a cloud computing region in the kingdom, strengthening partnerships with local data center companies, according to the statement.

The deal also covered the launching of a training program for Saudi university students, including visits to Huawei headquarters for in-depth tech learning.