Riyadh, July 21, 2020, SPA -- Oracle Saudi Arabia announced selecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to be the regional center for its cloud data center in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which is one of 20 global centers, and depends on higher technologies in digital security, and allows innovations such as virtual simulation and reduce the risks of continuing and evolving threats. The center was launched in the presence of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Sawaha; the Senior Vice President of Oracle for the Middle East, Africa and Central of Eastern Europe, Eng. Abdulrahman Al Thehaiban; and CEO of Oracle Saudi Arabia, Eng. Fahad Al-Tarif. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was chosen to be the first site in the Middle East and Africa region due to the strategic importance of the Saudi technology market. The launch of the center comes to support the governmental efforts exerted by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and related parties in promoting technological innovation and advancing digital transformation by providing platforms for emerging technologies and their applications such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things (IoT) and blockchain. --SPA 20:22 LOCAL TIME 17:22 GMT 0023 www.spa.gov.sa/w1375094