![The national flags of Saudi Arabia (L) and China are displayed from a road lamp at Tiananmen square in Beijing on February 21, 2019 [WANG Zhao / AFP/Getty]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gg.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) and Alibaba Cloud have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost the kingdom’s tourism sector.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing company which is the digital technology subsidiary of the popular Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, is set to provide technical support to the STA in order to promote Saudi Arabia as a new and viable travel destination for Chinese tourists.
In a statement by the STA’s CEO Fahd Hamidaddin, he hailed the MoU as a way of “building a digital infrastructure which can provide the destination with a competitive edge and visitors with the best possible experience.”
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Hamidaddin added: “By collaborating with Alibaba Cloud, we will break new ground in the regional tourism sector and position Saudi at the forefront of efforts to modernize the wider global tourism eco-system.”
He also cited the need to overcome the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on international tourism, which greatly obstructed Riyadh’s drive to increase tourism over the past few years to achieve the goals of its Vision 2030 programme.
This agreement between the Saudi and Chinese companies is the latest effort towards cooperation between the two countries, and comes after Beijing helped Saudi Arabia increase its nuclear capabilities by assisting the kingdom in the construction of a uranium ore facility last year.
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