Thales has consolidated its presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by inaugurating new office in Jeddah.

The new office highlights the Group’s strategy and ambition to increase local operational capabilities, mainly to serve security and ground transportation projects in view of the Kingdom’s $100 billion program to upgrade local infrastructures.

Ongoing transport projects include the North South Railway, for which Thales is providing signaling, security, communications and fare management systems. In terms of urban rail transportation, Thales has already delivered its SelTrac Communications Based Train Control solution to the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro project in Makkah.

In the security domain, Thales is central to the protection of Holy sites, providing traffic flow management systems for the Hajj and hi-tech security solutions for Makkah’s and Madinah’s holy mosques. Thales is also securing oil and gas fields and installing security systems for Saudi Aramco, SABIC and the city of Jubail.

Thales’s industrial presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dates back to the early 1980’s when a first JV was established to support the Group’s broadcast activities.  Since then, Thales has been involved in a wide spectrum of business activities for the defense and civil markets, from telecom and aerospace to ground transportation and security.

Photo: Jean-Yves Tolot, Managing Director of Thales in Saudi Arabia, delivers a speech during the opening of the new office.