UAE's RAK DAO and Tencent Cloud ink deal to boost crypto startups

The Memorandum of Understanding includes the establishment of a Tencent Cloud training center for skill development and education at RAK DAO.

Tencent Cloud, the cloud services arm of the Chinese conglomerate Tencent, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Arab Emirates’ crypto-focused free economic zone to facilitate startup growth through several initiatives.

On March 7, the Ras Al Khaimah Digital Asset Oasis (RAK DAO) announced the signing of an MoU with Tencent Cloud to explore “avenues for mutual growth.” Initially, the deal includes facilitating the growth of startups registered at the RAK DAO, a dedicated crypto zone located in Ras Al Khaimah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates.

The memorandum includes the establishment of a Tencent Cloud training center within RAK DAO for skill development and education. The deal also includes internship opportunities for companies licensed in RAK DAO and its partners within the Tencent Cloud ecosystem.

Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, described the MoU signing as a significant milestone for the emirate. The Ras Al Khaimah ruler welcomed Tencent Cloud and said that the collaboration would solidify Ras Al Khaimah’s position as a technology hub.

Meanwhile, Tencent Cloud CEO Dowson Tong expressed that the goal of the collaboration is to set new benchmarks in the Web3 space and to “unlock new opportunities in the digital economy.”

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A “free-trade zone” in the UAE is where entrepreneurs can have 100% ownership of their businesses in the country. These areas have their own regulatory frameworks and tax schemes, independent of the mainland, except for the UAE’s criminal law.

RAK DAO is a free-trade zone launched on Feb. 28 to provide a dedicated area for virtual asset companies. The area is dedicated to virtual asset service providers (VASPs) focused on Web3 technologies like the metaverse, blockchain, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

The UAE free zone has also started collaborating with various companies in the crypto ecosystem. In July 2023, it signed an MoU with the HBAR Foundation to assist ecosystem members in leveraging the Hedera blockchain.