GEC NEWS WIREHis Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), officially inaugurated Orange Business Services’ new Middle East innovation hub and regional business headquarters at Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO).
The official opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, Ludovic Pouille, the French ambassador to the UAE, Thierry Bonhomme, CEO of Orange Business Services, and senior officials from both entities and various business partners.
The new regional hub includes a solutions showroom, presenting, and demonstrating Orange Business Services’ smart solutions portfolio and capabilities in a user-friendly space, designed to stimulate further innovative ideas and collaborative business opportunities.
Speaking at the inauguration, Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni said: “We are pleased to welcome Orange Business Services, the global communications solutions provider and integrator for multinational corporations with expertise in smart city consulting, to Dubai Silicon Oasis as the latest of our distinguished partners and stakeholders. Orange Business Services counts as the newest addition to more than 74 French businesses that operate out of the hub.”
He continued: “As a governmental entity, we are keen on developing bilateral relations between the UAE and France, where in 2016 trade between the two has exceeded US$5.6 billion. The UAE’s investments in France account for 35 percent of the total investments from the region.”
“Dubai is one of the world’s most ambitious smart cities and we chose DSO as our regional hub because of its commitment to innovation and the strength of its business and startup ecosystem. DSO is also host to the Dubai Smart City Accelerator program, in which we are actively working with a group of startups, providing mentoring, consulting, and ‘proof of concept’ support. Our global innovation ecosystem now extends from Silicon Valley to Dubai Silicon Oasis, from where we will support the work of our dedicated smart cities teams across the region,” said Thierry Bonhomme, CEO, Orange Business Services.
Bonhomme added: “Dubai provides the ideal base and context for our rapidly growing business in the Middle East, where we have worked for the last five decades supporting the growth and transformation of business in the region. Today, we are designing the digital blueprints for the smart infrastructure and smart services of some of the highest profile and emerging smart cities across the region.”
