Saudi Arabia wants to build its own defence industry. Over the past 60 years it has spent billions on defending the desert kingdom. Most of that money flowed out of the country, but now the infrastructure is being put in place to build domestic industries to serve the country. Defence is an important part of that goal.Harnessing the requirements of both the government and the military is down to Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI). Created in May 2017, SAMI serves the objectives of Saudi's Prince Mohammed bin Salman's blueprint for the future,Saudi Vision 2030.One of its priorities is localising at least 50% of the defence business. That's a considerable increase on the current 3-5%, and will employ around 40,000 Saudi nationals by 2030.SAMI's CEO, Walid Abukhaled, has a huge task ahead of him, but his background would suggest there isn't a better man in Saudi Arabia to take on the challenge. He has worked in senior management roles for international companies such as Northrop Grumman,General Electric and BAE Systems, so he will know what lies ahead of him.
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