Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Naver (KRX: 035420) has been awarded a contract by the Saudi Ministry of Municipality and Housing to develop a national digital twin platform in five Saudi cities.
Why it matters:
The contract represents Naver's and South Korea's first foray into creating cloud-based digital twin platforms for smart cities in the Middle East market.
The Key Points
- The platform will serve both Naver's goals of validating its global smart city capabilities and Saudi Arabia's goals for urban planning, flood forecasting, and monitoring.
- Market projections by BlueWave Consultancy show a CAGR of 63.1% for the Saudi digital twin market from 2023 to 2029, in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.
- A technology assessment by MOMRAH positioned Naver favorably against global competitors, particularly in scalability and speed.
What they say:
"We sincerely appreciate the hard work and sweat of our seniors who laid the foundation of South Korea as an economic powerhouse by exporting construction equipment. We will lead the second Middle East export boom based on solid IT technology with global competitiveness. Through this project, Naver will serve as a bridge for IT startups to export to the Middle East.
Chae Sun-Joo, Head of External and ESG Policy at Naver
"Globally, Naver is the only company that combines precise city-level digital twin technology for indoor and outdoor areas, in-house mapping equipment, AI for automation, and cloud-based processing infrastructure. We have all the necessary technologies, including aerial photography and MMS (Mobile Mapping System), AI and cloud technology, experience operating 5G dedicated networks, large-scale indoor mapping technology, and real-world PoC experience such as the National Museum of Korea."
Naver Related Source
What's next?
Naver's digital twin platform will be an open system, allowing various smart city solutions and AI mapping applications to be developed.
South Korean companies LX and Korea Water Resources are already involved in the project, highlighting the potential for broader ecosystem development.
The contract is part of Naver's larger global expansion strategy, which already includes operations in Asia, North America, and Europe.
Ongoing policy discussions in Saudi Arabia are focused on further leveraging Naver's AI and cloud capabilities.
