Defense Contracting in the Middle East: New Opportunities for Military Contractors under Vision 2030

The Middle East Policy Council recently published a commentary on opportunities for the defense sector under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which presents unprecedented opportunities to military contractors to invest in Saudi Arabia. In the piece, my colleagues Amgad Husein, Anas Akel and I discuss how the Saudi government, in pioneering a new vision for a local military manufacturing sector, is seeking partnerships with leading security and defense companies. Vision 2030 offers these companies diverse opportunities for joint ventures, technology transfers, consulting and training.

Read the full commentary at http://www.mepc.org/defense-contracting-saudi-arabia.

Strategies for Complying with Anti-Corruption Rules

Government contracting can be highly rewarding in Saudi Arabia, given the wide-ranging opportunities in defense, education and healthcare. At the same time, however, companies doing business there need to be mindful of the anti-corruption rules and practices of not only their home jurisdictions, but also the Saudi legal framework. Moreover, investors must be conscious of the particularities of Saudi culture and politics, where the head of a company with whom they are negotiating may be a member of the Royal Family, or where an intermediary in a government contract may be one of the monarchy’s thousands of princes. Investors doing business in Saudi Arabia must understand this local context in order to avoid the unwitting payment to a “government official.”

My colleague Amgad Husein and I recently wrote a commentary on complying with Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption rules. The piece, published by the Global Mobility Review, can be viewed at http://www.globalmobilityreview.com/strategies-for-complying-with-anti-corruption-rules-in-saudi-arabia.