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| Saudi Arabia invests $6.4 billion in future technology |
On the sidelines of the LEAP International Technology Conference, the Kingdom's Minister of Communications and Information Technology said that Saudi Arabia has invested $6.4 billion in future technologies as the kingdom seeks to diversify its economy away from oil. Facing fierce regional competition.
Gulf countries have launched initiatives to boost non-oil growth and reduce dependence on crude oil. The kingdom has announced that it will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on an economic transformation led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as Vision 2030.
“The announced investments include a $2 billion joint venture between eWTP Arab Capital, a fund backed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, China’s Alibaba Group and J&T,” said Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Swaha. . China Express.
Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco has committed $1 billion through its Prosperity7 venture capital fund to help entrepreneurs around the world create transformative start-ups.
Prosperity7 supports exceptional entrepreneurs through partnerships to find the best solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.
It also supports long-term partnerships and provides a business network with entrepreneurs, investors and experts from all over the world.
The fund aims to direct its investments to leading companies in all sectors and industries with scalable and transferable innovations, technologies and solutions.
These investments include early stage startups in many industries. These technologies include blockchain, financial and industrial technology, healthcare and education.
Meanwhile, STC is investing $1 billion in submarine cable infrastructure and data centers.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is making a quantum leap in digitization through initiatives and investments
Al-Swaha told Reuters in an interview that the technology and digital market in the Kingdom is currently the largest in the region, at about $40 billion. We are very proud of the growth we have seen in the region, particularly in the areas related to e-commerce.
The minister explained that Aramco's Prosperity7 Ventures program focuses on green technologies. The J&T Express Logistics Group joint venture is building a regional smart hub that will increase efficiency by up to 100%.
Future City NEOM has also launched a $1 billion investment in the Metaverse space to serve the city's residents and tourists. In addition to launching the M3LD platform, which will help users to control their personal information.
“We expect to create between 100,000 and 250,000 jobs over the next eight years,” the minister said, which means we will double the number of programmers we have today. In some cases, this number triples.
The government is also expected to spend $1.4 billion on entrepreneurship and use the money to support digital content. This includes a program called The Garage, a space in the capital, Riyadh, that houses startups specializing in new technologies.