{"id":2370,"date":"2024-02-29T16:45:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T13:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2024-03-07T12:09:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T09:09:50","slug":"weekly-news-blast-29th-feb-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/weekly-news-blast-29th-feb-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly news blast &#8211; 29th Feb 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1858 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"859\" height=\"190\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1.png 2372w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-510x113.png 510w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-300x66.png 300w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-1024x226.png 1024w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-768x170.png 768w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-1536x339.png 1536w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GDCA-Weekly-News-1-2048x452.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 859px) 100vw, 859px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to <a href=\"mailto:imogen@gulfdca.com\">imogen@gulfdca.com<\/a> with <strong>NEWS<\/strong> in the subject line.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Sponsor News<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><u>Charles Russell\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><b><u>Speechlys<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1887 \" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CRS-logo-new.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"190\" height=\"123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CRS-logo-new.png 569w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CRS-logo-new-510x331.png 510w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/CRS-logo-new-300x195.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 190px) 100vw, 190px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Charles Russell Speechlys are nominated by Law.com International<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CRS\u2019 Middle East team have been shortlisted by Law.com International across four categories &#8211; for Middle East Law Firm of the Year and Qatar Law Firm of the Year along with Banking Finance &amp; Restructuring Team of the Year and Real Estate Team of the Year. Best of luck to the whole team\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/showcase\/charles-russell-speechlys-middle-east\/posts\/?feedView=all\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2266 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg.png 2560w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-510x126.png 510w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-300x74.png 300w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-1024x252.png 1024w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-768x189.png 768w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-1536x379.png 1536w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2560px-Vertiv_logo.svg-2048x505.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/>Vertiv<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Vertiv appoints Multimedia Technology (MMT) as new Australian distributor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vertiv have announced their partnership with new Australian distributor, Multimedia Technology. This collaboration will allow access to a broader market, facilitating wider use of Vertiv\u2019s power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crn.com.au\/news\/vertiv-appoints-multimedia-technology-as-australian-distributor-605476\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Industry News<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">UAE<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-704 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-dxb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"167\" height=\"202\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>DEWA and Masdar achieve financial closure on 1.8GW solar plant<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Masdar have achieved financial closure on the 1.8GW sixth phase of the UAE solar park, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. With production capacity set to double by 2026, the 20km\/sq. park will power over 500,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 2.36 million tonnes annually. Hoping to exceed a capacity of 5GW by 2030, this solar park will make the Saudi Vision 2030 sustainability goals a lot more attainable\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.power-technology.com\/news\/dewa-masdar-financial-1-8gw-solar-uae\/?cf-view\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Malaysia and UAE seal free trade deal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With negotiations over a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement having started last year, the free trade agreement between the UAE and Malaysia is finally set to conclude by the end of June. Following the agreement, Malaysia hopes that the UAE, through the Gulf state\u2019s sovereign wealth funds, will invest in it\u2019s energy, digital economy, electric vehicle and chip sectors\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zawya.com\/en\/economy\/gcc\/malaysia-to-seal-free-trade-deal-with-uae-by-june-minister-says-yq7r6q4d\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Saudi Arabia<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<h4><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1579 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"304\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-510x340.jpg 510w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/saudi-arabia-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em><u>Kingdom aims for 70% non-cash payments by 2025<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As of 2022, Saudi Arabia became home to over 147 fintech firms. The Kingdom is witnessing a rapid evolution in the digital banking sector, in line with their ambitious Saudi Vision 2030 goals to turn 70% of domestic payments to non-cash by the end of 2025\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zawya.com\/en\/business\/fintech\/saudi-arabia-aims-for-70-non-cash-payments-by-end-of-2025-citigroup-n09kldyu\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong style=\"font-size: 20.16px; color: #333333;\"><u>Qatar<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-705 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-qatar.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"169\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-qatar.jpg 800w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-qatar-510x622.jpg 510w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-qatar-246x300.jpg 246w, https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/happy-hour-qatar-768x937.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Qatar digital investments to reach USD$5.7bn by 2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qatar\u2019s digital investments are set to soar to $5.7bn by 2026, up from $1.65bn in 2022. Invest Qatar, in a JV with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), released a report showcasing Qatar\u2019s commitment to harnessing cutting-edge technologies for its smart country transition and emphasized initiatives to capitalise on the growing global smart city market. Their dedication to digital transformation is evidenced through projects such as MCIT\u2019s TASMU Smart Qatar or investment in areas like Lusail City&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulf-times.com\/article\/677864\/qatar\/qatars-digital-investments-to-soar-to-57bn-by-2026\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong><u>Middle East<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>Saudi Arabia and UAE poised to drive data centre demand in the GCC<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recent report, released by Turner &amp; Townsend, has revealed Saudi Arabia and the UAE as spearheads of the Middle East\u2019s exponential market growth &#8211; citing strategic government policies, swift uptake of IoT and AI, and emergence of cloud services such as AWS\/Oracle Zones (KSA) and Microsoft Azure (UAE), as catalysts for Saudi and the UAE\u2019s digital boom\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zawya.com\/en\/press-release\/companies-news\/saudia-arabia-and-uae-driving-data-centre-demand-in-the-gcc-j1cx2abm\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong><em>SKT, Deutsche Telekom, e&amp;, Singtel and SoftBank enter a JV<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This joint venture will serve to facilitate the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) designed to help telcos improve their customer interactions via digital assistants and chatbots. These LLMs will be multilingual, optimised for languages including Korean, English, German, Arabic, Japanese. The JV will focus on deploying innovative AI applications tailored to the needs of global AI telco players, enabling them to reach a total global customer base of approx. 1.3 billion across 50 countries\u2026<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capacitymedia.com\/article\/2cwi2rw6phoq7pixzahvk\/news\/skt-deutsche-telekom-e-singtel-and-softbank-to-form-a-joint-venture\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to the GDCA Weekly News Blast! Check out the latest industry news from the GCC region below. Have any Middle East data centres news you\u2019d like to share? Email yours to imogen@gulfdca.com with NEWS in the subject line. Sponsor News Charles Russell\u00a0Speechlys Charles Russell Speechlys are nominated by Law.com International CRS\u2019 Middle East team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-news-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2372,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/2372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulfdca.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}