A Saudi Arabian delegation led by Minister of Municipality, Rural Affairs and Housing Majed Al-Hogail, front row second from left, tours Naver's 1784 building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Naver

By Park Jae-hyuk

A Saudi Arabian delegation led by Minister of Municipality, Rural Affairs and Housing Majed Al-Hogail paid a visit on Tuesday to Naver's headquarters building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which is named "1784" and designed to be friendly to robots, according to the Korean tech firm, Wednesday.

The Saudi government delegation had 23 officials, including the minister and Deputy Minister Ali Rajhi.

Their visit came a few weeks after Naver officials visited the Middle Eastern country, along with Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong and several other Korean companies, to win orders for Neom, a $500 billion project to develop an eco-friendly smart city covering a total of 26,500 square kilometers in Saudi Arabia's northwestern Tabuk Province, which is located near the Red Sea.

Naver Chief Communication & Culture Officer Chae Seon-ju, Naver Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yu-won greeted the Saudi guests, displaying digital twin, robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud and data center-related technologies used at the building.

The Naver executives also introduced their company's various mobile services.

"They also discussed how to use digital technologies to solve Saudi Arabia's urban problems related to traffic, public security, sanitization and management of housing and buildings," a Naver official said.

According to Naver, visitors from other countries have been showing interest in its 1784 building.

Last Wednesday, Austrian President of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka visited the building. In July, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland also came to Naver 1784 during her stay in Korea.