The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing and the Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia sign an MOU with NAVER, NAVER LABS, and NAVER Cloud.
Since NAVER's participation in the "One Team Korea" consortium managed by the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, there has been significant cooperation.
Team NAVER will take part in extensive collaboration on numerous ICT projects, utilising its cutting-edge technology to build a super-app and a digital twin of Saudi Arabia at the scale of a metropolis.
The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing (MOMRAH) of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia (MISA) have signed an MOU to work together on the Saudi Arabian government's national digital transformation initiative using Team NAVER's cutting-edge technologies, according to NAVER Corporation (CEO Choi Soo-yeon).
On March 30 (local time), a signing ceremony took place at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Minister Majed Al Hogail, Vice Minister Musaed Alotaibi, Minister Khalid Al-Falih, Vice Minister Fahad Alnaeem, and the delegation from NAVER—which included President of NAVER's ESG and External Policy Chae Seon-ju, CEO of NAVER LABS Seok Sang-ok, and Executive Director of NAVER Cloud Han Sang-young—attended the ceremony.
An important milestone that shows how NAVER's persistent investment in cutting-edge technologies paid off is the signing of this MOU with the Saudi Arabian Ministries of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing and Investment.
As part of its dedication to safeguarding user data, NAVER developed "GAK Chuncheon" in 2013, the first data centre ever built by a Korean internet corporation. "Gak Chuncheon" has at least ten stable years of operation under its belt, without any interruptions, mishaps, or tragedies. Even when NAVER LABS, NAVER's R&D subsidiary, was established in 2017, this knowledge and experience served as the cornerstone for NAVER's continued investment in R&D for cutting-edge technologies including robots, autonomous driving, and digital twins.
In addition to the NEOM project, which Saudi Arabia is undertaking to create the largest smart city in the world, the nation is engaged in a variety of digital transformation initiatives. Out of all the competing worldwide IT businesses, NAVER, the top Internet provider in Korea, was chosen as MOMRAH and MISA's global partner because to its cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the cloud, autonomous driving, and digital twins.
With the MOU, Team NAVER, MOMRAH, and MISA will collaborate extensively across all areas for Saudi Arabia's ICT project, which aims to transform the country's whole economy into a digital one. Possible initiatives include building MOMRAH's "super-app (tentative)" for Saudi Arabia using hyperscale AI and cloud, or using Team NAVER's robotics- and AI-enabled digital twin solution for city-scale simulations and city monitoring.
"The technical prowess of Team NAVER is gaining recognition in the global market after years of sustained investment in cutting-edge technologies, and we will leverage our expertise and collaborate closely to support the Saudi government's national digital transformation initiative," said Chae Seon-ju, President of NAVER's ESG and External Policy. "Taking this case as a significant opportunity, where collaboration began in earnest following our participation in the 'One Team Korea', we will further strengthen our efforts to pioneer the global market and stay committed to establishing NAVER as a leading global tech company."
NAVER met with Minister Al Hogail in November of last year and joined the "One Team Korea" consortium, run by Minister Won Hee-ryong of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), to obtain Saudi Arabian contracts. Since then, NAVER and Saudi Arabia have been in constant communication. Minister Al Hogail visited 1784, NAVER's "Tech Convergence Building," in the same month to see for himself the company's technological acumen and its capacity for planning and developing mobile services.
Further conversations about the use of digital technology in housing and building management, as well as other facets of urban planning like transportation and public safety, took place during his visit. Saudi Arabia's interest in NAVER has persisted since Minister Al Hogail's visit, as three government organisations from the kingdom that deal with AI and data also paid the business a visit in February of this year.