The Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a Public Investment Fund (PIF) wholly-owned company, today announced its inaugural participation at the Armed Forces Exhibition for Diversity of Requirements and Capabilities (AFED), as a strategic partner of the 2018 edition from February 26th to March 03rd at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr. Andreas Schwer, CEO of SAMI, said, "the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the top five countries in the world in terms of military spends, and the establishment of SAMI was an ambitious yet highly critical step as part of the country's strategy to localize and globalize its military manufacturing industry. We aim to achieve this goal by building strong local capabilities in the military industries field, internalizing global trends and developments, combining the latest technologies with the best national talent, increasing exports, and bringing foreign investment into the Kingdom's military industries sector." "We believe that AFED 2018 offers the right opportunity to not just understand the Kingdom's military manufacturing requirements, but also to meet with various like-minded organizations and defense companies from across the world. We anticipate that our participation will open up doors to several collaboration discussions and future long-term partnerships, laying the cornerstone for SAMI to enable the achievement of the Saudi Vision 2030 by localizing 50 percent of government military spending, and become one of the top 25 military ?industries companies in the world," added Schwer. With a strategic framework in place, SAMI aims to contribute around SR14 billion directly to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's GDP, increase the value of national exports by about SR5 billion, invest over SR6 billion for research and development, and create over 40,000 direct jobs locally, by the year 2030. SAMI also works on increasing local content and building a sustainable and thriving military industries sector in Saudi Arabia were the main reasons behind establishing SAMI. AFED 2018 is a high-level event bringing together key industry stakeholders in the military field. The SAMI exhibition stand leverages technological innovations to highlight the company's genesis, strategic vision, operational competencies and capabilities, and product and service portfolio. The Saudi Arabian Military Industries provides a range of military products and services that currently span four ?business divisions, namely Aeronautics, Land Systems, Weapons and Missiles, and ?Defense Electronics, and has already signed several MoU agreements within its first year of operations with internationally renowned defense companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics, in order to support its development and growth.
