Major Saudi aerospace players are set to showcase their products and services at the Dubai Airshow in November, it has been confirmed.
The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), and the Saudi Aerospace Company will all be in attendance at the event, which will see aerospace professionals across all areas of the industry coming together.
Other Saudi companies present will be Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI); Advanced Electronics Company (AEC), Saudi Arabian Airlines, OxfordSaudia Flight Academy, and GDC Middle East.
Muneer Bakhsh, CEO at GDC Middle East, said: “The pandemic had an enormous impact on the aerospace industry, affecting manufacturing, airlines, airports, and defence companies.
“Taking part in Dubai Airshow provides a deep understanding of the industry’s insights on the aerospace sector and landscape following the pandemic and the way to its recovery, as well as opens doors for new partnership opportunities.”
As part of its plan to diversify the Kingdom’s economy, Saudi Arabia is placing a significant focus on digital transformation as well as supporting various industries, including aerospace and defence.
In support of this, AEC recently signed an agreement with Prince Sultan Advanced Technology Research Institute (PSATRI) to manufacture the Sky Guard drone for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
GAMI has announced 74 targeted opportunities in supply chains in the Kingdom’s military industries sector in an effort to localise more than 50 percent of Saudi’s military spending by 2030.
Speaking to Arab News in an exclusive interview at the Defense and Security Equipment International trade fair in London, GAMI CEO Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ohali highlighted the importance of investing in Saudi Arabia’s R&D sectors in order to achieve this goal.
Al-Ohali admitted that reaching the goal of domestic defense production accounting for 50 percent of the Kingdom’s military spending by 2030 was “challenging but doable,” as he argued that work undertaken to improve internal supply chains would soon see benefits.
He told Arab News that in less than four years, the Kingdom had doubled its localization rate from less than 4 percent to over 8 percent in 2020.
