Riyadh – Saudi Arabia is close to introducing an addition to the national economy following the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) announcement on Wednesday of the establishment of the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a new national military industries company.

The Kingdom is on a mission to reinforce national industries in the military sector, targeting localizing 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s military procurement spending by 2030

Saudi Arabia is one of the top five countries in security and defense expenditure. This makes the establishment of SAMI a significant step towards increasing the contribution of the military industries sector to the GDP.

The establishment of SAMI is a unique step that underpins PIF’s role in diversifying income sources – the fund has already commenced injecting tens of billions to the state’s treasury and has also started actual investment in technology and technical fields.

The company is expected to directly contribute with around SAR14 billion in the Kingdom’s GDP in 2030, invest over SAR6 billion in research and development, create over 40,000 job opportunities and more than 30,000 indirect opportunities as well as create hundreds of SMEs.

Commenting on this step, engineer Khalid al-Ghamdi affirmed that establishing SAMI will bring an addition to the national economy.

“Saudi Arabia was and still is an international military and economic force. Establishing this company will increase its power,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Ghamdi called on SMEs to benefit from SAMI through introducing new investments that are more vital and innovative.

The company represents an important component of Saudi Vision 2030 and a transitional point in the growth of Saudi military industries in which the kingdom will become a sustainable platform for providing military products and services.

SAMI will establish companies through joint ventures with global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), as well as cooperate with local military companies. The firm will seek to create new business units to ensure that the company is aligned with the latest advances in the military industries sector.