The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) reviews the achievements of the Defense Sector

GAMI – the entity responsible for localizing the Kingdom’s Defense Sector – has announced its achievements in the Sector, confirming that the Sector is moving strongly towards achieving its Vision2030 goals, foremost of which is the localization of more than 50% of the Kingdom's expenditure on Defense.

The achievements came at a press conference in which H.E. GAMI Governor Ahmad Al Ohali, who expressed how proud he was with the efforts of a fully Saudi team that was able to lay the foundation for a promising sector through 3 pillars: Military Acquisition, Military Industry, and Military Research and Technology, pointing that the Kingdom provides comprehensive opportunities for global investors and companies to benefit from the growth of the Kingdom's Defense Sector.

Speaking about GAMI’s achievements, H.E said: "We started reaping the results of GAMI’s development of the military procurement mechanism by unifying the purchasing power of defense and security entities in the Kingdom. GAMI achieved a high added value for procurement in the Security in many areas with savings of about SAR 900 million.

And he added, "By activating its role in managing the procurement process, the Authority was able to achieve added value in the received procurement contracts from various Defense entities in the Kingdom on several fronts, including financial, commercial, legal and operational.

The Authority also announced at this conference the launch of the Industrial Participation Program (IPP) that the Authority had developed in cooperation with several relevant entities and local and international manufacturers. In fact, H.E. asserted that the IPP is the cornerstone for localization in the Sector. By incentivizing manufacturers with a commitment to adding value in the Sector, transferring technology and knowledge, and increasing opportunities for Saudi talent in the Sector, H.E. pointed out that the Authority, since its inception, has identified localization opportunities worth SAR 4 billion. He also stressed that its results would be more apparent in the next few years.

Al-Ohali also affirmed that the industrial sector is the regulatory pillar of the authority, as the Authority launched the military industrial licensing portal for the first time in the Kingdom’s history, according to which requests for the issuance of licenses to practice activities in the areas of military manufacturing, military services, and trade in products services.

The press conference witnessed GAMI’s delivery of the first batch of licenses to several companies, led by the Saudi Arabian Military Industries Company (SAMI), Advanced Electronics Company (AEC), Tadrea Manufacturing Company (TMC), the Saudi Advanced Technologies Company (Wahaj), and Sondos Advanced Manufacturing Co. Also, Al-Ohali confirmed that the number of registered users through the Industrial Licensing portal reached 180 users, whilst the total number of requests for military manufacturing and services licenses has reached 95.

On the Authority’s 3rd Pillar R&T, Al Ohali emphasized that it is responsible for developing local capabilities by launching educational and applied programs to build human capital and incubation of small and medium enterprises and directing R&D efforts to areas that meet the Kingdom’s defense needs. This was done through cooperating and coordinating with several local and international universities and research centers.

Al Ohali touched in his speech on the expected impact of localizing the Sector in the Kingdom, saying: "There is no doubt that the first and most important benefit of localization is enhancing the Kingdom's strategic autonomy, national security, and military and security readiness. As for the economic and social dimension of localizing more than 50% of the Kingdom's expenditure on Defense, it will include building a Sector with a value exceeding SAR 30 billion in 2030, while the contribution to the Kingdom's economic diversification, by supporting non-oil GDP, is roughly SAR 90 billion in total by 2030."

Lastly he added, "Localizing more than 50% of expenditure on Defense will create about 40,000 direct jobs, and more than 60,000 indirect jobs in the supportive sectors over the next ten years and national competencies will occupy the largest proportion of them.

The Authority recently signed several memoranda of cooperation with its counterparts in several friendly countries. These memoranda aim to increase cooperation in military industries, R&D, defense technologies as well as increase efficiency military acquisitions.