News

Google Cloud Announces New Regional Hub In Qatar

The initiative is expected to bolster the country’s economic output by $18.9 billion from 2023 to 2030 and will eventually generate an additional 25,000 jobs.

Published

11 months ago

May 24, 2023

Nour Nasir

google cloud announces new regional hub in qatar

Google Cloud is working with Qatar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Qatar Free Zone Authority to establish a regional hub in the country’s capital, Doha.

The hub will be the company’s first in the GCC region. It will focus on the digital transformation of the company in Qatar and the wider Middle East, helping Google to develop its products and services.

The Doha hub was recently announced as part of Google Cloud’s global network of 37 regions and 112 zones. As a result of the expansion, Google Cloud services can now be used in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.

According to research by Google Cloud (conducted by Access Partnership), creating a new hub is anticipated to impact Qatar’s economy significantly. Between 2023 and 2030, the manufacturing facility will contribute approximately $18.9 billion to Qatar’s economic output and is also expected to create around 25,000 jobs by 2030.

Google says the new Doha regional hub will have three areas where users can submit apps and store them for better protection against attacks. The infrastructure will also include Google’s major cloud products, such as Computer Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Google Kubernetes Engine, Spanner, and more. These products provide users with various tools and features to meet their cloud needs and support them with their digital processes.

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The official announcement was made at a launch event attended by Qatari cabinet officials and business leaders, highlighting the importance of Google’s regional expansion to local cloud infrastructure.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai welcomed the announcement, declaring that the new hub aligns with Qatar’s National Vision 2030, stating, “The new cloud region will contribute to giving impetus to economic and productivity growth, and will allow various government and private companies and institutions within Qatar the opportunity to achieve significant efficiency gains by adopting flexible features in dealing with digital technology”.

News

Binance Receives Virtual Assets License To Operate In Dubai

As its user base nears 200 million, CEO Richard Teng believes crypto adoption will soar over the next half of the decade.

Published

18 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Nour Nasir

binance receives virtual assets license to operate in dubai

Global crypto exchange Binance has been granted a full operational license in Dubai, in a move that’s expected to accelerate digital asset adoption and strengthen the UAE’s regulatory landscape.

The virtual asset service provider license (VASP) was granted by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and will allow Binance to extend its current range of services to retail investors, the company announced yesterday.

The move by Dubai authorities will be critical to Binance’s strategy of growing its user base globally. The crypto exchange expects to pass the 200 million user mark “quite shortly”, according to Richard Teng, the company’s CEO.

Once that milestone is achieved, Binance will have around twice as many users as rival platform Coinbase. Meanwhile, Crypto.com, another popular exchange with 80 million users, received a Dubai VASP license last week.

“We’re seeing much greater institutional adoption and institutional money coming into this space [along with] much greater regulatory clarity and a lot more jurisdictions approving [digital asset] products that bring in new investor classes,” Binance’s Richard Tang explained, adding: “As of now, we stand at about 5% crypto adoption globally, but that will become much faster moving forward”.

Also Read: Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion In Abu Dhabi AI Tech Firm G42

Dubai and the UAE are extremely supportive of technologies like digital assets, and have already launched initiatives to boost adoption. The UAE has ambitious plans to become a world leader in the crypto economy of the future, with Dubai in particular being noteworthy for passing a new law to regulate virtual assets to support investors and exchanges.

“Global crypto regulation is currently showing diverging signs. Some developed countries have long suffered from crypto-related frauds and illegal exchanges. On the other hand, emerging nations like the UAE and Singapore have enacted crypto laws at faced pace,” said Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer of Dubai-based Century Financial.

As the UAE gears up to become one of the fastest-growing crypto capitals worldwide, investors and talent are flocking to places like Dubai. During 2023, the Emirates as a whole realized $204 million in capital gains from cryptocurrency investments, according to blockchain data analysts Chainalysis.