UAE: Aliyun partners Meraas to support e-payments in MENA region

Headquartered in Dubai, the joint venture will specialise in application development, citizenship e-services and big-data operations with a special focus on analytics and payment solutions. Abdulla Al Habbai, group chairman of Meraas, said the JV corresponds with the initiative launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to transform UAE into a smart city. He added the new company will offer services that improve the six pillars: transport, communications, infrastructure, electricity, economic services and urban planning.

Aliyun, Chinas largest provider of cloud services, opened its first overseas data center in Silicon Valley, US in March, 2015 marking the companys first foray outside the mainland. As of June 30, 2014, the company had 1.4 million customers using Aliyun services directly or indirectly through independent software vendors.

Regional spending on information and communication technology is set to surpass USD 270 billion in MENA region in 2015, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report. IDC said the regions projected 9% growth rate in 2015 is set to be second-fastest of any region in the world. The JV will also join a high-tech integrated community consisting of a data center, hotels, residential and commercial spaces, retail and restaurants to be developed by Meraas.