Saudi Arabia announces 'aggressive' plan to spend $20bn on domestic arms

Saudi Arabia has announced a “very aggressive” plan to spend more than 20 billion dollars on its domestic military industry over the next decade.

  “The government has put a plan that we will be investing in excess of 10 billion dollars in the military industry in Saudi Arabia over the next decade and equal amounts on research and development,” Governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Ohali said on Saturday. Al-Ohali, who was speaking at the hybrid International Defense Exhibition and Conference 2021 (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi said in the next ten years Saudi Arabia planned to invest 50 percent of its military budget in domestic industries. By 2030, he said, Riyadh also planned to increase its military research and development budget, doubling it from 0.2 percent of armaments expenditure to 0.4 percent. The new Saudi plan was announced at the kick-start of the conference on The Prosperity and Development of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology and the Protection in the Era of the 4IR. Al-Ohali described the scheme as “very ambitious, very aggressive.” He said 114 licenses had been issued for 70 companies in Saudi Arabia, adding that about a fifth of them were “foreign joint ventures, or, full ownership by the foreign companies.” He said GAMI had established an incentive program where foreign investors can own 100 percent of their investment in Saudi Arabia and be eligible for all the incentives, financial and otherwise, to develop the industry. Al-Ohali had previously announced Riyadh's program to license firms to boost its domestic military industries sector.




Related Contents

Yemen’s forces will cease operations once Saudi-led aggression, siege stop: Official

A senior member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council says Yemeni forces will suspend their retaliatory military operations only after Saudi Arabia and its allies put an end to their devastating war and all-out blockade against the Arab country.

|

Saudi strike kills at least 7 civilians preparing for Quds Day rally in Yemen’s Ma’rib

At least seven civilians have been killed after warplanes of the Saudi-led military coalition launched an airstrike on a group of people preparing for an anti-Israel rally in Yemen’s northern province of Ma’rib.

|

‘Over 300 Yemeni journalists killed in 6 years of Saudi-led war’

The Yemeni Media Union says more than 300 journalists and correspondents have lost their lives as a result of the devastating military campaign Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies have been waging against the Arab country since 2015.

|

Yemen reports another ‘accurate hit’ against Saudi airbase

Yemen’s air force carries out another precision retaliatory attack using a kamikaze drone, against the King Khaled Airbase in Saudi Arabia’s southwest.

|

Saudi-Led Coalition Seizes New Ship Carrying Fuel for Yemen

Sources affiliated with the Yemeni National Salvation Government reported the seizure of a new fuel tanker for Yemen by Saudi-led coalition.

|