[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Jisun] Naver is speeding up its digital twin business overseas by forming a joint venture with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC), a state-owned enterprise under the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. The new joint venture will be established under Naver Arabia (tentative name), which will oversee the Middle Eastern business operations.

On the 18th, Team Naver and NHC announced that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the joint venture during the Cityscape 2024 event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from November 11 to 14. Key figures in the ceremony included Chae Sun-joo, Naver’s head of External Affairs and ESG, Kim Yoo-won, CEO of Naver Cloud, Majed Al-Hogail, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, and Layan Al-Akeel, CSO of NHC.

The joint venture will operate under Naver Arabia, focusing on managing and commercializing digital twin platforms in Saudi Arabia. This venture marks the first business initiative where Team Naver will develop its technology platform business in the Middle East.

NHC, Naver's core partner in Saudi Arabia, is a state-owned company under the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. It handles approximately 70% of the country's real estate transactions. As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, NHC is focusing on digital transformation in the real estate sector and building smart cities. Since its founding in 2016, NHC has completed or is managing over 380 real estate development projects, and its real estate portfolio is expected to exceed $60 billion (80 trillion KRW) by the end of 2025.

In addition to digital twin platform operations, the joint venture plans to develop urban public monitoring platforms and a map-based super app for public administration purposes.

 

 

 

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