Qatar’s cabinet has given the green light for a Microsoft global data centre to be established in the country, according to state news agency QNA.

Yesterday, the Qatari cabinet approved plans to set up a global data centre for Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure and took necessary steps to draft a law to create a Media City.

The cabinet said in a statement that the Media City will have an independent budget and its borders and coordinates will be determined by the Council of Ministers.

In a bid to manage and develop media activity, the Media City aims to attract international media and technology companies as well as research and training institutions in the fields of media and digital media.

Microsoft has also secured various other Middle Eastern as well as African regions, including Abu Dhabi and Cape Town in South Africa. Azure now has 54 regions globally and is available in 140 countries.