Saudi Military industries to contribute SAR 95 billion to GDP by 2030
The General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI) said that it expects the contribution of the military industries sector to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product to reach about SAR 95 billion by 2030.
The governor of the authority, Eng. Ahmed Al-Ohali, indicated in the sessions of the Budget Forum 2023 in Riyadh held recently that Saudi Arabia has spent SAR 5.1 billion on incentives to enhance the local military industry over the past two years, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
He continued, explaining that these incentives included SAR 3.3 billion spent on research and development in military industries in 2021 and 2022.
The remaining SAR 1.8 billion was distributed to companies, including the Saudi Arabian Military Industries – SAMI
He added that the localization of military industries will contribute to the creation of job opportunities, with no less than 100,000 job opportunities, of which 40,000 are direct, and 60,000 are indirect job opportunities.
Global Fire Power, a global army rankings website, revealed in its latest report on the 2020 list of the most important armies in the world, the rise of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s army for the first time to the 17th in the world and the second in the Arab world, ahead of 8 places at once.
It was ranked 25 last year, surpassing The Israeli army, which ranked No. 18 according to the classification list based on about 50 criteria, including manpower, land area, size of airports, ports and coasts, budget, road network, transportation lines, and railways, in addition to military standards and war equipment.
Global Fire Power stated that the number of enrolled in military service in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is 803,000 of various ranks, of whom 478,000 are in actual service and 325,000 are within the reserve forces, while in the Israeli army the number in service is 615,000 of various ranks, 170,000 of them actually in service, and 445,000 in the reserve forces.
The world-famous Military Classifications website stated that the defense budget allocated to the army of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amounts to $67.6 billion annually, while the budget of the Israeli army is $20 billion, and the size of the Kingdom’s external debt reaches $205 billion, while in Israel it reaches $88.6 billion.
On the military standards comparing the Saudi and Israeli armies, Global Fire Power revealed that the number of aircraft in the Kingdom is 879 aircraft of different models, whether fighters, attack helicopters, transport and training aircraft, and ordinary helicopters, where the Kingdom has a clear advantage in transport aircraft with 49 aircraft compared to 15 in the Israeli army, as well as attack fighters, with 270 aircraft for the Saudi army compared to 259 for the Israeli army.
