Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 37 | Page 32

PROJECT UPDATE LATEST REGIONAL PROJECT UPDATE KSA Dr Tarig Enaya, Senior Vice President of the STC Enterprise Business Unit, has revealed that smart cities-associated technology investments that will take place in the next four years worldwide will reach US$158 billion by 2022 in accordance with the IDC Report. The figure is expected to reach US$2.7 billion (SAR 10.125 billion) in the Middle East and Africa. He mentioned how the tourism sector has become more intelligent, by providing real-time, interactive experiences to visitors. BAHRAIN Batelco signed a partnership agreement with Huawei, who will build an Uptime Institute Certified Tier III Data Centre for Batelco. This is based on the company’s vision towards Digital Transformation and expansion in new growth areas, and as part of its of its strategy to provide smart digital solutions to the public and private sectors through a coherent and integrated system, that includes infrastructure for storing and managing data. 32 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com