Saudi Arabia Concludes its Participation at Farnborough International Airshow

Saudi Arabia concluded its participation at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022).
Saudi Arabia concluded its participation at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022).
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Saudi Arabia Concludes its Participation at Farnborough International Airshow

Saudi Arabia concluded its participation at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022).
Saudi Arabia concluded its participation at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022).

Saudi Arabia concluded its participation at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA 2022). The five-day show was held in the United Kingdom, and witnessed wide-scale participation from across the globe.

Under the national “Invest Saudi”, the Saudi Pavilion was organized and led by the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI). It comprised GAMI, the Saudi Ministry of Investment, the World Defense Show (WDS), and the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI).

The Pavilion garnered impressive interest from a wide array of air domain and defense industrialists, specialists and experts, high-level governmental representatives, global and institutional investors, and visitors.

Saudi Arabia capitalized on this unique opportunity to present the latest developments in the Kingdom’s defense sector, and the wealth of sizeable defense opportunities and incentives available to global investors.

Inaugurating the Pavilion was Ahmad Al-Ohali, GAMI Governor, with notable high-level representation in attendance amongst defense leaders.

In an address, Al-Ohali stressed that the Saudi Pavilion at FIA 2022 serves as a continuation of GAMI’s commitment to enabling the defense sector, and its realization of the overarching targets set forth by Vision 2030.

Particularly, GAMI aspires, through clear and concise measures, to foster meaningful partnerships, actively engage with international investors keen on the Kingdom’s defense sector, and expound on the sector’s many lucrative investment opportunities.

Moreover, it is vital to the Kingdom’s defense sector regulator to elaborate on the various initiatives, reforms, and programs championed by GAMI and explicitly custom-tailored to incentive potential investors.

As for the core message delivered to global stakeholders: It has truly never been easier to join a journey of localization empowered by digital transformation, and fastened with a sincere and strategic focus on ease of doing business via streamlined agile processes, as well as always maintaining thoughtful thorough consideration of the “win-win.”

Complimenting this Saudi Pavilion participation, were several key strategic announcements made by Saudi Arabia, chief of which was the announcement on the defense sector localization rate, which soared from 2% in 2018 to 11.7% in 2021.

A multitude of defense platforms and capabilities were localized over this period, all contributing to enhancing operational readiness and strategic autonomy, through strategic and sustainable partnership building. The overarching goal: localizing more than 50% of expenditure on defense equipment and services, by the year 2030.

Yet another announcement made by Saudi Arabia at its pavilion was that of Establishment Permits (EPs) and Industrial Licenses. As of end of June 2022, GAMI had issued 291 Establishment Permits to 174 establishments. Of these, 41% were defense establishments (those solely offering defense products and/or services).

As for supporting and adjacent industries (those offering products and/or services with both defense and civil applications), they accounted for 42%, while 17% corresponded to trade establishments.

GAMI has indeed been working diligently and attentively to attract local, regional, and global investors, leveraging a bouquet of incentives strategically structured to maximize investor ROIs. Amongst these, are financing Non-Recurring Expenses (NREs) associated with strategic military projects and technologies, via cash grants and low-interest loans.

Other incentives include VAT exemption for locally manufactured products, provision of industrial lands at discounted rates, generous advanced payments on defense contracts to incentivize investment in the sector, and a slew of regulatory and policy reforms specifically enforced to streamline and facilitate the investor journey.

On the agreements and international partnerships front, the Saudi Pavilion also had much to share with the global defense community.

SAMI for example, the national champion and wholly owned PIF subsidiary, announced that SAMI Aerospace signed an agreement with Airbus Helicopter Arabia, the MENA arm of Airbus Global, for providing rotorcraft technical support to the Royal Saudi Armed forces, and building indigenous capabilities.

SAMI also announced that SAMI Composites, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, signed an agreement with leading aerospace company Lockheed Martin to develop a composites manufacturing center of excellence in Riyadh with the support of GAMI, to boost Saudi Arabia’s indigenous aerospace manufacturing capabilities.

Lastly, SAMI announced that it signed a number of major agreements with the leading Singaporean defense technology group ST Engineering, supporting SAMI in producing cutting-edge defense systems pursuant to executing its development and growth strategies, whilst also providing technical support and training.

The participation of the Kingdom, in global defense and security shows like FIA 2022, falls within GAMI’s official mandate, wherein GAMI is tasked with leading and organizing international participations, in close collaboration and coordination with its valued public and private sector partners, with the categorical intention of underpinning the investment opportunities born by the sector.

In realization of its overarching goal of localizing more than 50% of expenditure on defense equipment and services by the year 2030, GAMI fosters, nurtures, and cultivates strategic partnerships with its various stakeholder groups within the global defense ecosystem.

These key global partners include governmental and defense entities, global industry OEMs, and even research institutes and universities. The intention of GAMI is to regulate, localize, and enable defense industries in Saudi Arabia, whilst attracting investors from across the globe to the Kingdom, for a sustainably safer and brighter future for generations to come.



Saudi Arabia Enacts Reforms to Boost Business Climate, Investment Appeal

Riyadh (SPA)
Riyadh (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Enacts Reforms to Boost Business Climate, Investment Appeal

Riyadh (SPA)
Riyadh (SPA)

Saudi Arabia will enforce two major regulatory frameworks, the Law of Commercial Register and Law of Trade Names, starting Thursday, marking a significant overhaul of its business registration process.

The reforms are part of the kingdom’s ongoing efforts to modernize its regulatory environment, create a more business-friendly ecosystem, and strengthen its position as a global investment hub in line with Vision 2030.

Approved by the Saudi government on Sept. 17, the new laws represent a major regulatory shift aimed at empowering investors, facilitating business growth, and unlocking investment opportunities nationwide.

They form part of a broader, ongoing regulatory transformation designed to enhance transparency, improve the business climate, and align with the kingdom’s economic and technological advancements.

Commerce Minister Majid Al-Kassabi said the Cabinet’s approval of the laws aims to streamline business operations and ease the burden on enterprises by consolidating their registration into a single nationwide record.

The new framework also standardizes the reservation and registration of trade names to protect and enhance their value, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s economic and technological advancements under Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia ranks 62nd out of 190 economies in the World Bank's latest annual Ease of Doing Business index.

Ministry of Commerce official spokesperson Abdulrahman Al-Hussein noted that the new commercial register law introduces major changes.

Among the key changes are the elimination of subsidiary registers, with a single commercial register now being sufficient. Additionally, the law removes the requirement to specify the city of registration, allowing one commercial registration to apply across all regions of the Kingdom.

The new law also obligated commercial establishments in Saudi Arabia to open bank accounts linked to the establishment in order to enhance its reliability and ensure the integrity of its transactions.

In addition, the law cancels the expiration date for the commercial register, requiring only an annual confirmation of the data, the spokesman stated.

Under the law, the commercial registration number will serve as the establishment’s unified number, starting with (7).

The ministry will grant existing subsidiary registers a five-year grace period to rectify their status in accordance with the new regulations.

Meanwhile, the new Law of Trade Names in Saudi Arabia, which consists of 23 articles, aims to regulate the procedures for reserving and recording names in the commercial register, maximizing their value, and protecting them and their rights.

The law allows a trade name to be reserved before it is recorded for a specific period that can be extended. It also sets the requirements that must be met by trade names to be registered or reserved, and the criteria for prohibited names.

Al-Hussein explained that the new regulations also allow for the reservation and registration of trade names in English, including letters or numbers.

This marks a departure from the previous law, which permitted only Arabic names without foreign characters or numbers.

The new law will enable the management of trade names independently from the establishment, allowing for the transfer of their ownership while prohibiting the registration of identical or similar names for different establishments in Saudi Arabia, even if their activities differ.

Al-Hussein noted that the law also includes regulations for reserving family names as trade names and establishes criteria for prohibited or misleading names.