RIYADH - The Chinese tech giant Huawei announced on Monday the opening of a cloud data center in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, as part of its efforts to expand its online service offerings in the Middle East.

Huawei said in a statement that the new center will become a core data center for Huawei Cloud Services in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, "offering innovative, reliable, secure, and sustainable cloud services."

The new data center in Riyadh will provide a range of cloud services, including infrastructure, databases, big data, and artificial intelligence, etc, the statement said.

Praising Huawei as "a proud partner" of Saudi Arabia in its technological progress, Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali, Saudi Vice Minister of Communications and Information Technology said the Chinese tech giant has been working with the ministry, local service providers, enterprises and universities in various collective efforts towards digital transformation.

"We look forward to the transformative impact the new data center will have on our digital ecosystem, creating new avenues for innovation and growth." He added.

Steven Yi, senior vice-president of Huawei and president of Huawei Middle East and Central Asia Region, lauded the business environment in Saudi Arabia.

"Create an inviting environment, and you'll attract the best. This is undeniably true for Saudi Arabia, a nation that consistently attracts top investors," said Yi.