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RO150mn private investment to boost digital economy

4 Dec 2022 By

Muscat – The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MTCIT) has attracted a consortium of local and international investors in the area of data hosting and processing in Dhofar. Green Data City is establishing a large-scale data centre for hosting, processing and mining data for various applications, such as distributed ledger technologies, blockchain and fintech as a result of partnerships between local and international digital innovation companies.

MTCIT’s mandate is to attract digital investments to the country in advanced technologies including data hosting and data processing. The ministry hopes through this investment opportunity to accelerate the adoption of distributed ledger technologies, blockchain and fintech. MTCIT believes that such advanced technologies have a promising future globally and is endeavouring to localise technologies and create job opportunities for young Omani IT specialists.

The investment opportunity totals more than RO150mn in the full-fledged setup of the facility and will assist in providing more than 150 job opportunities during the construction and operations of the centre.

The investment opportunities capitalise on the digital investment incentives that Oman offers and more specifically on the abundance of submarine data cables landing in the sultanate that offer high-speed worldwide connectivity.

Additionally, Dhofar enjoys natural competitive advantages to provide alternative sources of energy to power the data centre, including wind, solar and deep-sea cooling.

H E Saeed bin Hamoud al Mawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, said that Oman is positioned as a test-bed hub for advanced technologies given the competitive advantages that the sultanate enjoys in attracting digital investments. Green Data City is one of the unique digital investments in this domain.

H E Mawali also added that attracting digital investments will accelerate the objectives of the National Digital Economy Programme and help achieve the desired growth in the use of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies, and maximising the use of submarine data cables and renewable energy opportunities to make Oman a hub for green and sustainable data centres in the region.

Olivier Ohnheiser, CEO of Green Data City, stated that Dhofar is strategically positioned and has unique advantages to establish sustainable hyperscale data centres, such as a stable economy, cool weather in the Salalah region, unique access to cold deep ocean water next to the shore, and available renewable energy.

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