The Gulf countries represent great opportunities for aerospace & defense companies willing to enter strategic partnerships with local companies. A number of regional countries use their defense spending also as a way to leverage the industrial development through offsets, which as a result opens interesting possibilities for foreign aerospace & defense companies. Qualifying offset projects usually receive advantageous start up loans with the foreign contractor and local investors holding a share of the company. The United Arab Emirates are leading the way in this development with a wide range of small to very large defense procurements. As a result, a number of strategic partnerships have been formed between major international companies such as Sikorsky, EADS or Finmeccanica and the two local industrial investment power houses Mubadala and Tawazun. But not only major international defense contractors are sought after, also small and medium size aerospace & defense enterprises with advanced and unique technologies or services have outstanding opportunities to forge local partnerships and establish themselves in the UAE. The most important condition is probably the sustainability of the joint ventures with offset credits being released upon the generated profits. These partnerships show the desire to expand the indigenous defense base and possibly more importantly receive advanced technology and create employment opportunities for skilled and educated Emiratis. While the defense spending in Kuwait is certainly lower than in the UAE, a wide number of opportunities are presented to foreign companies willing to establish themselves in this local market. Kuwait is one of the few countries which also apply offsets to civil procurements and hence current offset obligations are estimated at being several billion of US dollars high. Over the last few years a lot of emphasis has been put on educational offset projects with the opening of the Maritime Simulator at the Australian College of Kuwait in May 2009 being the latest offset success story. Apart from education, a wide number of opportunities for joint ventures in civil and defense areas can also be found providing that interesting technology is transferred as well as opportunities for employment and training for Kuwaitis are offered. Oman has recently seen some changes in their offset program with the responsibility having been transferred from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. This change however appears not to have impacted the guidelines, which at least for now still focus on investments and the creation of joint ventures with local companies. Qatar has lately been quite active in the aerospace & defense market with a number of high value purchases. While no official offset policy is applied, companies such as EADS have initiated strategic partnerships mainly in the area of R&D and education.
