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The project includes the deployment thousands of kilometres of fibre cables as Syria looks to become a regional digital hub
This week, Saudi Arabian communication giant STC Group has announced it has won a roughly $800 million contract to lead Syria’s Silklink infrastructure project.
Silklink is a joint venture with the new Syrian government aimed at improving communication both regionally and internationally. It includes the deployment of around 4,500km of optical fibre, as well as the establishment of data centres and international submarine cable landing stations.
STC will hold a 75% stake in Silklink, with the remaining 25% stake held by the Syrian Sovereign Fund.
The new backbone network will be used to underpin Syria’s digital transformation, supporting digital applications, cloud services, the IoT, and advanced mobile services. It will also serve to make the county a key data transit route between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
While no specific deadlines for the network’s deployment have been announced, Syria’s minister of communications and information technology, Abdulsalam Haykal, said the development would take place in two phases over the next 18–24 months.
For STC, the investment represents its latest efforts to improve cross-border connectivity in the Middle East, helping position Saudi Arabia as the region’s digital centre. STC is currently building a similar international backbone network in Oman with Ooredoo, as well as working to connect both the 2Africa and Saudi Vision Cable subsea networks to countries across the region.
The Silklink project was also announced alongside roughly $2 billion-worth of economic agreements between the Saudi Arabian and Syrian governments, highlighting the warming of a once frosty relationship. These investments notably include the creation of new low-cost airline, aimed at helping reconnect Syria to international travel after years of flight restrictions.
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