Oman’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology has signed an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch a local zone for cloud services and local data processing in the Sultanate.

Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) also signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon Web Services to enhance its efforts to offer innovative solutions to its subscribers, reported Oman News Agency (ONA).

Said bin Hamoud Al Ma’awali, Minister of Transport, Communications and IT, said that Oman, as per this memorandum of agreement (MoU), will be the first country in the Middle East to have an Amazon Web Services data centre with local area technology, after the success of this type of technology in the US.

This, he added, qualifies Oman to be a regional hub for data centres and cloud services, as well as a link between Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The minister affirmed that the ministry seeks to cooperate further with Amazon Web Services to attract foreign investment in the ICT sector, notably in hosting and processing information and cloud services.

The minister pointed out that this cooperation will enhance the achievement of the National Programme for the Digital Economy. Amazon Web Services is one of the largest global companies that are specialized in cloud hosting services.

He added that this cooperation offers many economic opportunities with Amazon Web Services, the most important of which are multiple marine cables for the transfer of data among global centres, thus serving clients within Oman and abroad.

The MoU was signed by Dr Ali bin Amer Al Shidhani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. On behalf of Amazon Web Services, the MoU was signed by Vuychik Bagda, Public Sector Manager for the Middle East and Africa. Talal bin Said Al Maamari, CEO of Omantel, signed the MoU on behalf of the Omani company.