SAP to invest $200m in the UAE by 2020

European enterprise software firm SAP said today it would invest $200m in the UAE over the next five years.

The announcement was made at the opening of the firm’s new Middle East and North Africa headquarters in Dubai Media City.

Under the plans, it will also establish a cloud data centre in the country this year targeting the government, banking and finance and healthcare sectors.

SAP previously announced a $450m investment in MENA in 2012.

Read: SAP To Invest $450mn In MENA

“Our UAE investment plan and our new Middle East and North Africa headquarters in Dubai affirm our commitment to this strategic market, with public-private partnerships fueling digital transformation, co-innovation, talent development and entrepreneurship,” said Luka Mucic, CFO and board member at SAP.

The new headquarters is home to a co-innovation lab focussed on augmented and virtual reality technology for finance and real estate companies and internet of things devices.

It also houses a new training centre for students and young graduates.

Europe the Middle East and Africa accounted for 44 per cent of SAP’s EUR22bn ($23.3bn) global revenue in its 2016 financial year.

Research firm Gartner forecast in recent report that the MENA public cloud services market would double in size from $1bn in 2016 to $2bn in 2020.