Kingdom Holding, the investment vehicle of Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has signed an agreement with Saudi Telecom Company (STC) to develop the telecom infrastructure at its flagship project, Kingdom Land in Riyadh.

The agreement is the foundation for establishing a smart city based on information and communication technology with a goal to provide outstanding level of services in the region, said a statement from Kingdom Holding Company (KHC).

As per the deal, STC will ready a smart fiber-optic network to provide the Kingdom project with an integrated information technology solution for all communications and services.

The infrastructure will be developed as per the highest gobal standards, including interactive e-services for all project elements such as safety and security, road traffic, monitoring facilities and other services, it added.

Talal Almaiman, the KHC executive director for development and domestic investments and Jameel  Abdullah Al Molhem, the CEO of  STC (Saudi Operations) signed the agreement in the presence of Prince Alwaleed and Saud bin Majed Al Daweesh, the STC Group chief executive officer.

Commenting on the deal, Prince Alwaleed said, “With STC’s extensive experience in this field we are confident it will add value to the development of Kingdom’s smart city at a high level of telecommunications standards.”

Almaiman said, “We recognize the importance of lifestyle quality; therefore, our vision and objective is to exceed all expectations in light of our global experience. STC was selected based on their well-known extensive experience and capability in the telecommunication field.”

According to Al Daweesh, STC was keen to partner with Kingdom Holding in light of its success with local mega projects and presence globally.

"This deal is in line with our belief to work closely with globally experienced companies to build smart cities given our extensive capabilities in this sector," he added.-TradeArabia News Service