Saudi Arabia launches platform to connect suppliers

Saudi Arabia's procurement and offset agency, the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), has launched a new online platform to help connect stakeholders in the country's defence industrial base.

Known as the Military Industry Marketplace, the platform is designed to help connect companies that have been authorised and licensed by GAMI to work in the military sector. Announced on 22 August, the platform is designed to help strengthen the country's localised supply chain, and connect domestic and foreign original equipment manufacturers so that higher levels of localisation can be undertaken.

The platform is also to list opportunities for registered users, to help with the identification of work required and the transfer of workshare and technology.

“As GAMI, we have covered a lot of ground in a very short time in terms of localisation. With the supply chains in the Military Industries Sector and targeted opportunities our localisation efforts will gather even more momentum and strengthen the military industries ecosystem to prove once again the Kingdom's role in the defence market,” GAMI's Governor, His Excellency Ahmad Abdulaziz Al-Ohali, said in a statement.

Currently in Beta version, the Marketplace platform lists 22 companies in a variety of sectors such as maintenance, repair, and overhaul; defence electronics; platforms and structural components; and personnel equipment. GAMI has 99 companies licensed to undertake defence-related work in the Kingdom.