Saudi Arabia has called on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to build sustainable digital connectivity and integrate computing capacity that protects data sovereignty, so regional companies can compete globally, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The call came in an address by Communications and Information Technology Minister Abdullah Al-Swaha at the 30th Meeting of the GCC Ministerial Committee for Post and Telecommunications in Bahrain on October 18.
Al-Swaha said the Kingdom is working with other GCC members on three priorities: moving from digital resilience to artificial intelligence leadership, integrating energy and computing while safeguarding data sovereignty, and building common markets for entrepreneurship.
He said Saudi Arabia had added more than 8.4 terabits per second of international capacity to support data traffic and telecommunications across GCC states, lifting overall capacity by about 80% to 18 terabits per second.
The Kingdom has submitted a proposal to the GCC General Secretariat and the country holding the rotating presidency to establish sustainable digital interconnectivity modeled on the GCC electricity interconnection network, SPA reported.
On energy and computing, Al-Swaha said Saudi Arabia has made available a range of sites and 14 gigawatts of power capacity for data centers that would serve the Kingdom, other GCC states, the wider region and the world. He called for a sustainable model of cooperation on data centers.
He urged GCC countries to open markets and harmonize standards so Gulf companies can expand beyond regional competition. GCC members are home to more than 20 unicorn companies and account for about 95% of venture capital investment in the region, he said.
“The next phase requires GCC member states to operate as one integrated Gulf ecosystem across data, computing, cloud services, and artificial intelligence,” SPA quoted him as saying.
On the sidelines of the same meeting, Al-Swaha held separate talks with Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Kuwait’s Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Omar Saud Al-Omar, and Qatar’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, SPA said.
