Ministry of Investment signs 12 MoUs at World Defense Show

Logo of Ministry of Investment

Ministry of Investment signed 12 MoUs today, March , with global partners in the defense sector on the second day of the World Defense Show in Riyadh.

The MoUs aim to promote collaboration in the subjects related to investing in the Saudi military industry, building in-kingdom capabilities, and discussing the relocation of companies’ regional headquarters to the Kingdom.

Khalid Al-Falih Minister of Investment said investment in the defense sector is one of the vital and strategic approaches of Vision 2030. The Kingdom aims to localize military technology and sciences, and create new jobs in the public and private sector.

Through its national investment strategy, the Kingdom allows foreign investment in the defense sector with full ownership, to benefit from qualitative opportunities in the military industries and manufacturing. Investments in the sector are likely to reach over SAR 37 billion by 2030. The defense sector is expected to contribute nearly SAR 17 billion to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.

The new MoUs aim at exploring investment opportunities, building local capacities, promoting technology transfer, advancing manufacturing and system development and the relocation of global companies’ headquarters to Saudi Arabia, Al-Falih noted.

Ahmed Al-Ohali, Governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), said the military industries sector in the Kingdom has become promising. The localization of spending on military equipment and services rose from 2% in 2016 to 11.7% in 2021.

“This leads us to boosting our local and international partnerships to achieve our localization targets of over 50% by 2030.”