RIYADH: Dubai Multi Commodities Center and digital platform SafeGold have signed a memorandum of understanding to digitize gold assets in the Middle East and North African region.
The partnership will create an ecosystem for gold-backed digital certificates, initially in the UAE and then across the MENA region’s $20 billion gold market.
According to a DMCC press release, gold bars will be physically stored in secure vaults and verified by warrants issued on its Tradeflow platform, a central registry of ownership for gold and commodities stored in UAE facilities.
The digital certificates backed by gold can then be traded on SafeGold’s platform, providing investors with greater transparency and confidence.
“We look forward to making the UAE a hub for gold investors across the region and accelerating the digital gold ecosystem in the UAE,” said Gaurav Mathur, founder and managing director, SafeGold, in a press statement.
“DMCC is perfectly positioned to drive these efforts given our extensive knowledge in gold, world-class infrastructure across the entire gold value chain and ongoing work in blockchain and web3 sectors,” said Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman and CEO of DMCC.
SMEs could see $17.1bn boost from hyperscale cloud computing: report
Hyperscale cloud computing can generate 62.6 billion dirhams ($17.1 billion) in benefits for small and medium enterprises and startups in the UAE in the next eight years, according to a report commissioned by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy and Amazon Web Services.
According to the report titled “Impact of Hyperscale Cloud on UAE SMEs and Start-ups,” these enterprises could generate $10.1 billion in user benefits and $7 billion in partner benefits between 2022 and 2030 through regional hyperscale data centers in the UAE.
Hyperscale refers to an information technology infrastructure’s ability to accommodate the increased resource demand in a distributed computing environment. It could enable UAE businesses to scale globally and serve customers worldwide.
“Superior data center infrastructure tends to create local concentrations of enabling factors for innovation, such as early-stage venture capital funding and the development of skilled local talent, generating long-term startup ecosystem benefits and attractiveness,” the report stated.
For example, medium-term plans such as the Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy, which aims to automate a quarter of all transportation in Dubai by 2030, will require robust digital infrastructure and cloud access.
The report highlighted that key policy goals would require significant public cloud data services with low latency, high availability and reliability, and access to artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities provided by hyperscale cloud.
The report further estimated that by 2030, hyperscale cloud computing would create 133,000 direct and indirect jobs in the UAE. In addition, the technology will achieve a 78 percent reduction in the country’s carbon footprint and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2.2 million metric tons in the next eight years.
(With inputs from WAM)
