OREANDA-NEWS. December 20, 2012. SABIC is a strategic sponsor of the Armed Forces Exhibition for Spare Parts and Materials 2012, which was inaugurated by Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Minister of Defense, at the Dhahran International Exhibition Center on December 8. Prince Khalid presented Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, Executive Vice President, SABIC Shared Services, an honorary plaque in recognition of SABIC’s support to the exhibition.

SABIC is sponsoring the six-day exhibition as part of its initiative to support and encourage the private sector to generate investment opportunities to increase procurement from locally-owned suppliers. The exhibition aims at opening channels of joint cooperation between the armed forces and the private local companies, explore promising investment opportunities, take advantage of local capacities and capabilities, and build a long-term strategic relationship with the domestic manufacturing sector.

The exhibition further aims at informing the private sector on the armed forces’ requirements of materials that can be manufactured locally. It will seek to promote Saudization programs, establish channels of communication for planning and follow-up between the armed forces on one hand, and manufacturing factories, local companies, and research organizations on the other.

SABIC is participating as strategic sponsor of the exhibition to provide investment opportunities for the private spare parts manufacturers. More than 15,000 supply and investment opportunities are being offered to local manufacturers. These include the manufacturing and supply of equipment, parts and tools required by the various sectors of the Ministry of Defense. SABIC is already supplying various polymer, chemical, and metal products to the ministry.