Google Cloud’s move is expected to contribute significantly to the Kingdom’s economic landscape by accelerating AI-based innovations.
Google has launched a new Google Cloud region in Dammam to provide advanced and swift cloud services to a diverse clientele in the Kingdom and the Middle East, catering to small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as startups.
Abdullah Al-Swaha, Minister of Communication and Information Technology, said, “Google Cloud’s investment is a strategic move, and we are confident that it will bolster the Kingdom’s regional computing hub ambitions, as well as support our digital entrepreneurship drive and the acceleration of AI-based innovation and business models across the public and private sector.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said, “Our new cloud region in Saudi Arabia will help both public and private sector organisations make the most of their data, leverage generative AI solutions, and create a culture of innovation underpinned by a modern, sustainable infrastructure with built-in security.”
Google Cloud Google Cloud services reduce the requirement for clients to own or run their physical data centers and servers, as access to cloud computing will help 1.2 million small and medium enterprises achieve their growth objectives, raising productivity by up to 3.5% in 2030.
Bader Al-Madi, Country Manager at Google Cloud, said, “Saudi SMEs account for 90% of businesses and 60% of total employment in the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims for SMEs to contribute 35% to the gross domestic product by 2030.
“We’re going to be working actually to evangelise Google technology in the country. This will be on a sectoral level. The technology will benefit the banking sector, insurance sector, and the fast-emerging fintech industry in the Kingdom. “If you talk about the public sector, we’re talking about smart cities,” Al-Madi added.
Tarek Khalil, Google Cloud Director in MENA, said, “We’ve announced today that we’ve trained so far in the past year 19,000 people in the Kingdom. Of the total, 5,000 were only trained uncertified in our centre of excellence, which we have announced to make available the required resources to drive the digital transformation agendas and journeys for clients and partners and government entities,” Khalil added.
This move is expected to contribute significantly to the Kingdom’s economic landscape, with research commissioned by Google Cloud, and conducted by Access Partnership, estimating a potential $109 billion boost to the country’s gross domestic product between 2024 and 2030.
This is also projected to generate 148,600 jobs within the economy by 2030, it said citing the research findings.
