Prince Turki Bin Saud, President, Kacst Global Platform’s Latest Digital Interview Highlights Aerospace Expansion

Saudi Arabia’s bid to enhance its position among innovation supporting states and employing it as one of the pillars of development is gathering momentum, with several major collaborative ventures helping to drive growth across a broad range of knowledge-led industries, Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud, president of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), told Oxford Business Group’s online broadcasting service, Global Platform.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview available to view on the digital platform, Prince Turki told viewers that strategic partnerships with both academic institutions and private industry players were pivotal in the Kingdom’s plans to take research and development (R&D) to the next level of manufacturing and production.

“We are targeting collaborations with the world’s leading research organisations which will enable us to move from innovation to commercialisation,” he told Global Platform.

In the full video interview, Prince Turki highlighted some of the partnerships that are already delivering results and that will actually result in enhancing national economy, notably Saudi Arabia’s collaboration with the Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing and services company, Antonov.

The Kingdom has teamed up with Antonov to build the AN-132, a multipurpose transport aircraft, which began test flights in December. The technology for the aircraft is jointly owned by Saudi Arabia and Antonov, Prince Turki said, with manufacturing to be undertaken in the Kingdom. “This aircraft, which is used for cargo and can take up to 90 passengers, will be soon flown in Saudi Arabia,” he told Global Platform.

The president of KACST mapped out the country’s plans to create a facility at King Khalid International Airport in the next few years, where aircraft such as the Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 could also be built. This commitment showed that Saudi Arabia’s plans to create an aerospace industry by entering into key partnerships that will realize its goals and future plans were advancing, he said.

In the video clip, Prince Turki also noted the diverse range of R&D under way in the Kingdom, which extends from genomics and renewable energy to value-added manufacturing and nanotechnology. The decision to galvanise domestic production, he said, would help Saudi Arabia move towards its target of increasing local content by at least 70% by 2030. The prince also pointed out that the country’s innovation drive had allowed Saudi Arabia to sharpen its focus on harnessing human resource wealth, in line with the long-term economic development plan for the country, Vision 2030.

“Saudi Arabia’s economic development will depend on innovation, which requires a lot of R&D,” he said. “The country is now concentrating on the real revered wealth of the country, and that’s its people, in addition to other resources that Allah granted it.”

Andrianna Dafnis, OBG’s Country Director said the interview with Prince Turki provided a fascinating insight into Saudi Arabia’s progress in its shift away from a reliance on oil and gas towards a knowledge-led economy, and the opportunities that its strategy was producing for a broad range of firms and research institutions.

“One of the key messages in our video is that R&D and innovation are acting as catalysts for the localised development of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector across a broad spectrum of specialisations,” she said. “I’m delighted that we have been able to provide viewers with details of the openings that are emerging from the Kingdom’s bid to position itself as an innovation centre on the international stage.”