BlackBerry-maker RIM has announced a wide-ranging strategic alliance with regulators and mobile operators in the UAE to promote its services to governments, enterprises and academic institutions in the region. The new agreement appears to signal the start of a new chapter for RIM in the UAE after local regulators had earlier threatened to ban certain BlackBerry services on security grounds. However, there was no mention of these recent problems in an upbeat joint statement issued by RIM, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the UAE and local operators Etisalat and Du today, which described the new deal as “a long-term commitment to address the growing market opportunities for smartphones, tablets and services that serve the needs of businesses and citizens in the Middle East.”

The partnership is also committed to bringing more localised content and applications to the BlackBerry platform in the Middle East. RIM announced it is launching its BlackBerry App World (the official on-device app store for BlackBerry smartphones) in the UAE, as well as its development platform, BlackBerry WebWorks, which aims to support local application development. “The enormous popularity of BlackBerry Messenger in the Middle East demonstrates the potential for new apps and services in the region and this collaboration will support the local developer community to create additional rich and locally relevant apps for both BlackBerry smartphones and the new BlackBerry PlayBook,” said Jim Balsillie (pictured), co-CEO of RIM.