IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Experts advise Seoul to shift from passivity and embrace bold initiatives

Korea should prioritize hydrogen and smart city initiatives to enhance its influence on NEOM, a pioneering city being built in Saudi Arabia by leading companies from around the world with the goal of maximizing efficiency and eco-friendliness for the anticipated 9 million residents, according to government officials and experts, Tuesday.

As the oil-rich kingdom seeks to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies to address the climate crisis and align with global initiatives on carbon neutrality, Seoul should capitalize on Saudi Arabia's needs by showcasing Korea's capabilities, particularly in the world's largest city construction project, the experts said.

HanmiGlobal, a construction project management (PM) company, announced on June 1 that it has won a PM order for the Neom Smart City project in Saudi Arabia.

To be built in northwestern Saudi Arabia, Neom City is a high-tech new city 43 times the size of Seoul. It is a mega-sized project on which Saudi Arabia will spend more than 500 trillion won to rev up the Saudi Arabian economy.

The deal, which includes building a smart parking platform, marks Kakao’s most substantial overseas move to date

Kakao Mobility Corp., which runs South Korea’s most popular ride-hailing app, Kakao T, has clinched a deal to build a future mobility infrastructure, including a smart parking platform, for Saudi Arabia’s $63 billion Diriyah development project.

The agreement with Diriyah marks Kakao Mobility’s most substantial overseas move to date, following taxi-hailing and rental car services in dozens of countries. It also reflects the increasing demand for Asian smart city expertise in the Middle East, where digital-first planning is reshaping the urban development landscape.

South Korean internet giant Naver Corp. said Tuesday it has completed the development of digital twin platforms covering three major Saudi Arabian cities, part of the Middle Eastern nation's smart city initiative.

The total area covered by the platforms for the cities of Mecca, Medina and Jeddah spans approximately 6,800 square kilometers, roughly 11 times the size of Seoul, and includes data on over 920,000 buildings, according to the company.

South Korean internet giant Naver said Tuesday it has secured a large-scale deal in Saudi Arabia to build a cloud-based digital twin platform for the kingdom’s futuristic smart city project.

The deal signing ceremony was held in Saudi capital Riyadh on Monday upon President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit.

Naver didn’t reveal the exact size of the deal, but the presidential office hinted that it could amount to $100 million.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), however, has expressed some reservations regarding certain articles in the proposed system, pointing out that it interferes with its national policies. Accordingly, the UAE has called for the amendment of three articles in order for it to acquiesce to the new unified traffic system.

EMC Hosts Third Edition of Public Sector Mega Workshop; Highlights Growing Interest Among Public Sector Entities in KSA to adopt Blended Cloud Models to Meet Changing Customer Requirements in the New Era of Mobile, Cloud and Big Data

In line with its commitment to contribute to the government and community in Saudi Arabia, EMC hosted the third edition of its Annual Arabic Public Sector Mega Workshop to showcase latest technologies and discuss how they can help redefine the future of public services and national administration.

CGM Tepe International, a leading provider of scalable health information technology products and solutions for healthcare companies on a workflow-based platform, has announced that it is in the process of merging with another Turkish subsidiary of CGM (CompuGroup Medical) called CGM Türkiye, which provides Health Payer Services and Information Systems (HPSIS division) and is one of the leading TPAs (Third Party Administrators) serving private health insurance companies and other health payers like bank funds. The newly formed company named CompuGroup Medical (CGM) is emerging as the most powerful healthcare IT solution provider in Turkey and the Middle East region. This step follows the global "unique brand philosophy" of CGM, which has a clear focus on the most relevant local market subsegments in healthcare, building on a strong international brand and the vision of being the most successful eHealth company in the world.

Saudi Arabia shared a new update on the progress of its visionary Neom project, particularly on the construction of its futuristic mega-city, The Line.

Neom is an urban area being built by Saudia Arabia in Tabuk province and is part of plans to transform the country's predominately oil-based economy to one focused more on tourism.

Cutting-edge training programmes are thriving in Arab states, fuelled by collaboration between government, business and academic institutions.

It’s crunch time: A reskilling revolution is crucial if we don’t want workers to be left behind by automation.

The World Economic Forum predicts 1 billion jobs – a third of all jobs worldwide – will be transformed by technology by 2030. Inevitably, traditional sectors will be displaced as demand shifts to emerging tech including data analysis, generative AI and software development.

There has been an exponential increase of smart city developments in the Middle East

The pursuit of sustainability roadmaps, the transformation of the urban landscape, and the improvement of the quality of life for citizens are simultaneous priorities for every major city. Emerging technologies are primed to play an influential role in facilitating success, and cities are eager to harness the power of one technology, in particular, moving forward – the Internet of Things (IoT).

The DGA announced the measurement of digital transformation coinciding with the launch of the first edition of the Digital Government Forum in Riyadh, which comes within the framework of the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 to continue the journey of digital transformation

Government agencies in Saudi Arabia have made great progress in the digital transformation measurement 2022, reaching 80.96% compared to 69.39% in the previous year, the Digital Government Authority (DGA) revealed on its official Twitter account.

Two recent announcements from Saudi Arabia highlight the growing momentum in that country behind smart city development.

Firstly, MVNO Virgin Mobile Saudi, owned by Dubai-headquartered digital services provider Beyond One, has become the preferred technology partner for Middle Eastern regional technology services company Hitek.

“So far, the number of residents subscribing to the service exceeded 400,000, which reflects the satisfaction among the owners of private organisations for this service and its importance in helping them to facilitate the process of their sponsored employees,” Dr Khaled bin Abdul Azeez Al Gonaim, CEO of Al Elm Information Security, said in a statement made available to Khaleej Times here.

Dagang Nexchange Berhad (DNeX) is tying up with Zhongheguoji Construction Group Co Ltd (CSI) to source for state-of-the-art technology and solutions from China.

In a statement, DNeX said it is establishing a joint venture with CSI for the establishment of a joint venture enterprise (JVE) to also expand its geographical footprint into the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Neom is said to be the brainchild of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Critics say human rights are being abused.

Key Points

• Neom is said to be the brainchild of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
• MBS claims Neom will have the capacity to accommodate 450,000 people by 2026 and nine million by 2045.
• Critics says human rights are being abused.

It’s been marketed as a “civilisational revolution that puts humans first”.

NEOM and DataVolt have entered into a landmark agreement, marking a significant step toward realizing Saudi Arabia’s vision for a sustainable, data-driven economy. This collaboration aims to establish advanced data centers within NEOM, the ambitious megacity under development in the kingdom’s northwest.

The partnership focuses on creating state-of-the-art data infrastructure to support NEOM’s technological and environmental goals. DataVolt, recognized for its expertise in developing and operating data centers, will play a pivotal role in this initiative. The agreement underscores Saudi Arabia’s commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology with sustainable practices, aligning with the broader objectives of Vision 2030.

The launch of The Line — a revolutionary 170-kilometer, zero-carbon, urban-development project featuring several of hyper-connected communities — sparked massive interest worldwide when it was unveiled this week. It is also proving hugely popular among Saudis, who see it as their nation’s most ambitious project to date.

Arab News spoke to some of the experts who played vital roles in developing the Kingdom’s infrastructure to find out why The Line is so significant and what sets it apart from other smart-city projects, and to provide deeper insight into the innovations at the heart the wider NEOM project, a futuristic $500 billion megacity development.

The flight test campaign lasted over a week and built on 18 months of collaboration between Neom, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, and Volocopter.

Neom, the smart and sustainable regional development in northwest Saudi Arabia, and the urban air mobility (UAM) firm Volocopter, have announced successful completion of a series of air taxi test flights.