Paramount chairperson Ivor Ichikowitz
Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) and global aerospace and technology company Paramount Group have announced the signing of a high-level defence collaboration agreement, which is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision for the creation of an integrated defence industrial ecosystem.
The collaboration between SAMI and Paramount will result in the development of technologies and capabilities across the land, sea and air domains, as well as system integration, in support of Saudi Arabia’s economic development plan, Vision 2030, which sets an ambitious objective to increase the domestic share of military equipment expenditure to 50% by 2030.
SAMI CEO Dr Andreas Schwer on Thursday said the collaboration between the two companies would play a significant role in helping to achieve the objectives of the Middle Eastern country’s Vision 2030 plan.
This, he added, would contribute significantly to further enhancing the capability of the Saudi Armed Forces and increasing local content, in addition to creating new job opportunities and training for Saudi youth to increase their contribution and raise their role in this industry and the national economy in general.
“Paramount has an established record of working in partnership with customer countries, helping to create local defense industrial capabilities through technology and skills transfer,” Schwer said, adding that SAMI recognised that there were many synergies between the companies that could be leveraged to build the defense industrial capability that Saudi Arabia requires.
Citing Saudi Arabia as important to the company, owing to much of its technology having been developed with the Middle East in mind, Paramount chairperson Ivor Ichikowitz said the company “shares the vision of the Crown Prince and his economic development plan”.
He added that the company was “sensitive to the requirements of our customers to establish strategic industrial capability and put a strong focus on assisting governments in creating domestic manufacturing capacity”.
According to Ichikowitz, Paramount’s portable manufacturing model had been successfully implemented in a number of countries around the world.
“Over the years, we have refined this model, which is now perfectly aligned with the declared intent of Saudi Arabia. Where many organisations are still learning this approach, Paramount has been implementing projects on this basis for many years and is a viable major partner even in the most sophisticated markets,” he averred.