Paramount forges top level ties with Saudi

The multiple collaboration agreement between SAMI and Paramount Group will see the development of technologies and capabilities across the land, sea and air domains, as well as system integration, in support of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s economic development plan, which sets an ambitious objective to increase the domestic share of military equipment expenditure to 50% by 2030.

CEO of SAMI, Dr. Andreas Schwer, said: “This will contribute significantly to further enhancing the capability of 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 vital industry and the national economy in general.

He added: “Paramount Group has an established track record of working in partnership with customer countries, helping to create local defence industrial capabilities through technology and skills transfer. We believe there are many synergies between our companies that can be leveraged to build the defence industrial capability that Saudi requires.”

Paramount Group’s chairman, Ivor Ichikowitz, (pictured below) said: “Saudi Arabia is important to Paramount Group as much of the technology that we have created over the years has been developed with the Middle East in mind. We share the vision of the Crown Prince and his economic development plan. We are 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.”
“Both the technology and expertise now have huge relevance to the security realities facing the Middle East. We have also invested very heavily in developing some of the most modern land forces, aviation, and naval platforms in the world. These platforms have allowed us to compete amongst the best in the world for both developed markets, as well as emerging markets.”