The Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) announced its inaugural participation at the Armed Forces Exhibition for Diversity of Requirements and Capabilities (AFED) as a strategic partner of the 2018 edition. AFED 2018 will be held from February 26 to March 3 at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center. SAMI’s platform at the exhibition will introduce through technological innovation the companys foundation, strategic vision, path, competencies and operational capabilities and will showcase a range of products and services it provides. CEO of SAMI Dr. Andreas Schwersaid said Saudi Arabia is one of the top five countries in the world in terms of military expidenture 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,” he said. “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 similar organizations and defense companies from across the world,” Schwersaid added. “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,” he pointed out. Launched in May 2017, SAMI, which is a state-owned ‎military industries company working under the directives outlined in the ‎Saudi Vision 2030, aims to contribute around SAR14 billion ‎directly to Saudi Arabia’s GDP‎, increase the value of national exports by about five billion riyals, invest over two billion riyals ‎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 It provides a range of military products and services that currently span four ‎business divisions, namely Aeronautics, Land Systems, Weapons and Missiles, and ‎Defense Electronics. It has already signed several Memorandums of Understanding 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.