The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council hosted a breakfast roundtable discussion with Mr. Homaid Al Shemmari, Chief Executive Officer – Aerospace & Engineering Services at Mubadala Development Company, and other senior U.A.E. executives on Friday in Washington, D.C. Senior executives representing American industry and officials from the U.A.E. Embassy in Washington, D.C. participated in the closed-door discussion.
After a brief introduction from Danny Sebright, President of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, Al Shemmari laid out Mubadala’s current aerospace operational strategy and objectives for future growth. In doing so, Al Shemmari specifically pointed to the 2nd bi-annual Global Aerospace Summit taking place April 7-8, 2014 in Abu Dhabi and the work of Mubadala’s 23 subsidiary companies operating under the Aerospace & Engineering Services portfolio as tangible evidence of Abu Dhabi’s pursuit to become one of the top three aerostructure manufacturers in the world by 2020.
“Mubadala is in lock-step with supporting the leadership of Abu Dhabi’s economic goals to develop local capabilities across key sectors and to build a sustainable workforce in the United Arab Emirates with the support of industry partners from the U.S. and around the world,” said Al Shemmari. “Mubadala views commercial aerospace as a high-growth vertical ripe for rapid development and fundamental to growing trade relations between the U.S. and U.A.E.”
During his presentation, Al Shemmari explained that the three core verticals that form Mubadala Aerospace & Engineering Services – Aeronautics, Communications Technology, and Defense Services – are being integrated in order to “maximize the potential from shared partnerships and relationships”. He then provided a detailed outline of how, under his leadership, the three verticals are driven primarily by a combination of personnel and technology to generate growth and increase efficiency and productivity. Al Shemmari underscored opportunities for local, regional, and international consolidation in certain sub-sectors of each vertical that could potentially lead to accelerated growth.
Al Shemmari went on to describe how existing commercial partnerships between Emirati and American firms – like Boeing, GE, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, and others – can serve to educate Emiratis about the importance of the aerospace sector to the economic vision of the country and its potential to create a significant global footprint. Al Shemmari highlighted clear opportunities to work together to build strong regional platforms rather than competitive issues. He pointed to potential investment in the U.S. market as a way to build upon existing relationships with American firms and create new ones.
“Mubadala views the United States as a natural source of world-class industrial partners and an open investment climate supporting a growing global aerospace supply chain,” said Al Shemmari.
Following Al Shemmari’s formal remarks, the floor was opened for a question and answer session affording senior executives the opportunity to discuss issues and commercial opportunities directly with an Emirati thought-leader driving the country’s aerospace sector development. Topics discussed during the session included a status update on the operations of Mubadala’s manufacturing, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. Al Shemmari also elaborated on strategy surrounding Mubadala’s foreign direct investment in the U.S., sector integration, and domestic capacity building in the U.A.E., as well as possible commercial opportunities for aerospace companies with standing U.A.E. offsets obligations.
Sebright concluded the event by thanking Mr. Al Shemmari for his insightful and candid remarks, and to representatives around the table for their substantive engagement.
