Naver Corp., the operator of South Korea's leading internet portal, said Monday it has plans to establish a Middle Eastern unit in Saudi Arabia within this year as part of efforts to expand its global business.

The new unit, tentatively named Naver Arabia, will be in charge of Naver's business projects in Saudi Arabia, including the creation of a digital twin platform for five Saudi cities and the development of an Arabic-based large language model, according to the Korean company.

Naver Arabia will also push to establish joint ventures with local entities for various projects.

Earlier this month, Naver signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) to cooperate in various sectors, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data centers and robots.

SDAIA has been leading the Middle Eastern nation's ambitious plan of creating a technology-driven economy by 2030. (Yonhap)