Dhofar to host RO 150m data mining and processing centre

Staff Reporter

Muscat, Dec 4

Green Data City will invest RO 150 million in Dhofar for setting up a large-scale data centre for hosting, processing and mining data for various applications, such as distributed ledger technologies, blockchain, and fin tech. The project will generate 150 jobs.

This investment comes in the wake of efforts of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (MoTCIT) to attract local and international companies for investing in data hosting and processing

Said bin Hamoud al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, said the ministry is working on attracting investment in data hosting and processing industry to propel Oman’s digital economy.

MoTCIT believes that such advanced technologies have a promising future globally henceforth endeavouring to localise technology and create job opportunities for young Omani IT specialists. The investment opportunity capitalises on the digital investment incentives that Oman offers and more specifically on the abundance of submarine data cables landing in Oman that offers high speed worldwide connectivity, availability and redundancy. Additionally, the governorate of Dhofar enjoys natural competitive advantages to provide alternative sources of energy to power the data centre including wind, solar and deep-sea cooling.

MoTCIT seeks to build partnerships with leading local and international private sector entities in the various areas of digital innovations including data related projects.

Al Maawali said that Oman is positioned as a test-bed hub for advanced technologies given the competitive advantages that Oman enjoys to attract digital investments. Green Data City is one of the unique digital investments in this domain. He also added that attracting digital investments will accelerate the objectives of the National Digital Economy Program and will help achieve the desired growth in the use of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies, and maximising the use of submarine data cables and renewable energy opportunity to make Oman a hub for green and sustainable data centres in the region.

Olivier Ohnheiser, CEO Of Green Data City, stated that Dhofar is strategically positioned and has unique advantages to establish sustainable hyperscale data centres such as stable economy, cool weather, unique access to cold deep ocean water, and high renewable energy. Green Data City will develop the facility in two stages; phase one will be powered by the traditional electricity grid while phase two will depend on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and deep-sea water cooling to operate the 200 MW facility.

Minister Al Maawali visited the new site, while the technical team presented the immersion cooling technology, used to reduce electricity consumption. Ohnheiser thanked the government leadership for making this investment a reality, which in turn will attract other foreign direct investors in data hosting and processing.