Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba?s cloud computing unit Aliyun has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Dubai?s Meraas Holding
The new company will provide services such as analytics and big data to companies and government institutions in the MENA region.
The unnamed venture is expected to boost Dubai?s smart city initiatives, and offer support for six major components of Dubai's modern day infrastructure namely transport, communications, infrastructure, electricity, economic services and urban planning.
In addition, Aliyun is expected to build a data centre in Dubai as well. Two months ago, Aliyun built its first data centre outside China, in California?s Silicon Valley.