The Executive Council of Dubai and China's Huawei Consumer Business Group sealed on Wednesday a partnership that will see Dubai Font as a standard pre-loaded font in the mobile operating system from the Chinese ICT giant.
The signing was attended by Ahmad bin Amer Al Mahri, assistant secretary general of Dubai's Executive Council, and Jiao Jian, president of Huawei Consumer Business Group for Middle East and Africa.
The Dubai font will be available in the upcoming Huawei flagship smartphone launched first in the Middle East and Africa later this year, and then in the rest of the world by next year, said Jiao.
As a reflection of the modernity and innovation of Dubai, the signing is the latest in a series of steps seeing the city cement its position as a global cultural hub, according to the executive council.
The Dubai government and U.S. software giant Microsoft (MS) launched the Dubai font on April 30, 2017.
It reflects "the style of Dubai as an open city and is available in 23 languages on MS word applications and social media channels like twitter and instagram, among German, English, French, Arabic, Urdu, but not yet in Mandarin," Al Mahri told Xinhua.
"We are working on Mandarin and we hope to announce its inclusion very soon to the Dubai Font family," he added.
Huawei's Jiao said the Shenzhen-based ICT giant's "brand value is also recognized by multiple authoritative global agencies."
"According to the Fortune 500 ranking published on July 20, Huawei ascended to the 83rd from the 129th of last year, with revenue of 78.51 billion U.S. dollars, making the top global 100," he said.
Abdullah Al Shaibani, secretary general of the Executive Council of Dubai, also spoke highly of the partnership.
"Dubai Font is a new tool for self-expression and communication in the region and around the world, and we are confident that this agreement will leave its mark on the world. Huawei has a good reputation and this seems a natural fit for us moving forward," he said.
As the first font created by a city and named after it, the Dubai font is available to more than 100 million users of Microsoft Office 365 around the world. It could also be downloaded through the Dubai Font website for other usages and operating systems.
