The Clúster Marítimo Español organised the Meeting with the Sea: «The MARITIME HUB HISPANO SAUDÍ: constitution, consolidation and future opportunities». A meeting organised to present our association to different companies and organisations.
During the event, the president of the Maritime Hub Hispano-Saudí, Francisco Cuervas, spoke about the organisation, commenting on our actions and our outlook for the future. The association seeks to be a useful platform for the establishment of links between Spanish and Saudi companies.
The companies that make up the Maritime Hub Hispano-Saudí see the association as a medium-term opportunity to create relations and ties with Saudi Arabia, seeking new plans for openness and investment. In just a few months it has already been possible to see the transformation of these plans into reality, as is the case with the Vision 2030 programme. Saudi Arabia wants to leverage its investment capacity to become an industrialised country.
The partners are clear about their mission within the Maritime Hub Hispano-Saudí, as the president of the association, Francisco Cuervas, said at this meeting: «We want to transmit knowledge».
Many of our partners are part of the supply chain of Navantia, a benchmark company in the Spanish naval and defence industry. «Navantia had some needs that it had to meet, either with its own resources or with its supply chain, so the more Navantia is supported by its supply chain, the more we all win,» Cuervas said.
We intend to be a platform that facilitates the establishment of links between Spanish and Saudi Arabian companies. The Saudi market wants to identify large pockets of resource collaborators, so if we approached it individually, rather than as a partnership, the likelihood of success would decline. By joining forces we will achieve all our objectives. We are not a commercial entity, so we aim to provide facilities to our members. We are a collaborative model that seeks to give visibility and build a forum to make ourselves known.
Juan Carlos Díaz, Program Director in Navantia’s Services Area commented, «The Arabian corvettes programme is being a complete success. We have delivered the first one, meeting the delivery deadlines and all the landmarks, and the customer is extremely satisfied. A programme that we are very proud of and that has been achieved thanks to all the companies that are here».
At Navantia, they look for a prolonged relationship with the client, in other words, a relationship that does not end with the delivery of the projects, but a relationship that is long-lasting and continues after completion. In order to achieve this, the Vision 2030 programme seeks to create its own local network that is capable of working as a team.
Navantia has high expectations in our association. For them, we are an interesting initiative from a business point of view and from a customer point of view. » The common work is already giving us the success that we start harvesting together. We are generating future and that is our intention», explained Juan Carlos, who concluded saying, «We support the clients throughout the life cycle of the ship, we want to go hand in hand with the Arab companies».
From Frizonia, Javier Gamundi commented, «This could be a germ of how auxiliary companies can internationalise. We want to open up the world in the naval and industrial market. Our objective was to attend to Word Defense Show in Riyadh, and with the work of all of us, it was achieved».
We are finding great support from the Spanish administration, as Francisco Cuerva pointed out, «The auxiliary industry can not wait for Navantia to bring us work. The companies have to take that step forward and take advantage of all the opportunities. It is our job to go out into the market».
All the companies that are part of our association have found their own market, diversification and clients, something that is very valuable for the Saudi Arabian companies, as they seek to rely on companies that already have a track record, are refined and know how the sector works.
The only condition to join the association is to take the adventure, to share effort and information. We are not only oriented towards the naval world, we are open to all types of companies, we have no restrictions and we have no limits in terms of sectors. Our policy will be modulated by the partners who join us.
From the Maritime Hub Hispano-Saudí we would like to thank Navantia for giving us their full support in everything and for making our progress so easy. We would also like to thank the Clúster Marítimo Español for providing us with their contacts and resources and, last but not least, all our partners. Let’s join forces and knowledge, the more we all push forward, the more we will achieve.