It has been confirmed that a Saudi Arabian government delegation that established the joint venture "Naver Innovation" with Naver Cloud last year recently visited Korea and met with Naver leadership.
According to the industry on the 23rd, about 20 people, including senior officials from the Saudi government and the National Housing Company (NHC), met earlier this month with Chae Sun-joo, Naver head of external and environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy, and Kim Yu-won, Naver Cloud CEO, among other executives, at the Naver Cloud data center in Chuncheon, Gangwon. Chae serves as chair of Naver Arabia RHQ and Naver Innovation.
The Saudi delegation included Ali Al-Raji, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing, Rayan Al Akeel, CEO of NHC Innovation, NHC's digital subsidiary, and Yasser Alobaidan, CEO of Balady, a key affiliate in the Digital Twin project.
During the Korea visit, they are said to have held a workshop at Naver Green Factory in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, with company officials to prepare for the first board meeting of the joint venture. Naver Cloud and NHC signed an agreement in May to establish Naver Innovation, the first business entity in the Middle East. The new company is jointly funded by Naver Cloud and NHC Innovation. The goal is to build and operate a map-based super app and to roll out a business based on a Digital Twin platform.
The Saudi government is pursuing the "Vision 2030" Smart City policy. "Vision 2030" is a long-term project aimed at moving Saudi Arabia away from an oil-centered economy and intensively fostering non-oil industries by 2030. Naver Innovation is in charge of the digital transformation (DX) project under "Vision 2030."
Naver, Naver Cloud and Naver Labs established the "KSA Digital Twin Platform (Digital Twin System)" in the three cities of Mecca, Medina and Jeddah in June. The KSA Digital Twin Platform is a project that renders cities in ultra-precise 3D.
Earlier, Naver and Naver Cloud won a contract in Oct. 2023 from the Saudi Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing to build a Digital Twin platform and launched full-scale operations in July 2024.
A Naver official said, "It is true that senior officials from Saudi Arabia visited recently," but added, "It is difficult to disclose specific details."