The Emirates Defence Companies Council (EDCC) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to build a strategic partnership to support the defence and security sector and to align its goals with the industrial strategy of Abu Dhabi to further boost the emirate’s competitive advantages.
The signing ceremony took place at Tawazun’s Pavilion at the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and Naval Defence Exhibition (NAVDEX) which took place in Abu Dhabi on 21-25 February 2021, Emirates news agency WAM reported.
The MoU was signed by Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Under-Secretary of ADDED and Matar Ali Al Romaithi, Board Chairman of the EDCC, in the presence of Anas Nasser Al Otaiba, Director-General of the EDCC, and several senior officials.
The MoU provides for cooperation in the areas of research and development, exchange of expertise, aligning industrial strategy with the defence and security industry’s role in building a sustainable, knowledge-based economy in the Emirate and promoting the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program (ADLC) within the defence and security sectors.
Al Balooshi said that through the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), ADDED seeks to regulate and develop the industrial sector in the emirate and sustain innovation as an effective element in its economy.
“The IDB aims at ensuring a competitive environment in Abu Dhabi’s emerging industrial sector. The defence and security industry is a promising sector that is poised to add great value to the emirate’s economic performance in the coming years,” he added.
“The defence and security sector is playing a growing role in support of economic diversification and sustainable development drive,” Al Romaithi said.
Al Romaithi noted that the EDCC will work very closely with ADDED’s IDB to consolidate defence companies in the national industrial sector and encourage them to develop their services and processes to meet the Bureau’s required standards and to garner benefit from the department’s export incentives programs.
The EDCC was founded as an initiative supported by the Ministry of Defence, the UAE Armed Forces and Tawazun Economic Council, to enable national defence companies.
It also provides a suitable environment for defence companies to develop their products and services according to international standards and best practices and enable them to contribute to the development of the industrial sector and the ongoing drive to diversify the sources of income for the UAE.
