Today Leonardo held a delegation of the United Arab Emirates, at its offices in Rome (Italy). It was led by the Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri. The delegation also included members of the UAE Space Agency and national industries in the sector.
After the strategic presentation of the group, Leonardo's CEO Alessandro Profumo said: "Leonardo's technologies have been contributing to the prosperity and security of the United Arab Emirates for over 50 years. Today's meeting strengthens further our bond. Leonardo remains committed to be a strong and long term partner of the Emirates for the foreseeable future. Leonardo will continue to contribute its expertise and capabilities to build a shared vision of sustainable development for the mutual benefit of our two countries ". Leonardo has a branch in Abu Dhabi and provided high-tech platforms to the UAE armed forces, institution and local partners, including more than 100 helicopters, naval systems, secure communications applications, space technologies and training aircraft, including the Aermacchi MB-339 jet trainer, chosen for Emirati national aerobatic team Al Fursan.
The meeting continued with a workshop on Italy’s aerospace sector - coordinated by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) - which was also attended by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the federation of Italian Companies for Aerospace, Defense and Security (AIAD), Avio and Intecs Solutions.
"This week's visit to some of our industrial districts highlighted various success factors of Made in Italy and Italian clusters, namely the ability to create a system between significant leaders and small-and medium-sized enterprises, the collaboration between private companies and public universities in the technological transfer of research, and the ability to combine technology with tradition, creativity and style. All these characteristics are within the Italian aerospace industry, which generates over 5 billion exports" said Carlo Ferro, President of Agenzia ICE.
Giorgio Saccoccia, President of Italian Space Agency ASI, said: "International cooperation is essential for the implementation of challenging programmes in a cutting-edge sector such as space and to facilitate opportunities for foreign trade to our companies. For this reason, the Italian Space Agency is working together with our national industry and academia to reinforce and consolidate the partnership in space with the United Arab Emirates, which is considered an important and attractive partner for future joint activities in the space field."
Also among today's guests were AVIO with its SVP of Institutional Relations Mario Cospito. He recalled the interest in the Emirates market, illustrating the excellence of the Vega launcher, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in the coming days, an incomparable wealth of experience on which the success of the Vega C, which will fly for the first time this year, will be based. To underline this interest further was the participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, where a model of the new launcher is exhibited.