When the Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC) announced plans in 2015 to take control of joint ventures and transferred technologies defence contractors scoffed. Three years later it appears EDIC has got away with it. “Everybody now understands how we work and nobody seems to have a problem with it” Fahad Al Mheiri EDIC’s director of business development informed CTO."
Germany has adopted a procurement approach that distinguishes between offsets and industrial participation, without defining either. In practice defence contractors maintain that it is impossible to win a major programme in Germany without local production. The Bundeswehr told CTO that while Germany considers offset agreements between governments and contractors unlawful, requests for industrial participation are legal.
A feisty Portuguese MEP with a hard dislike of offsets will campaign for their exclusion from the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) defence integration project. Left-winger Ana Gomes said she is hopeful that the newly-formed PESCO will enable the EU to move away from offset contracts because they tend to be corrupt."
The Nigerian government has issued an executive order increasing the level of local content in large public procurement deals by any of its ministries. The order awards preference in contracts for goods and services to domestic bidders, or to foreign companies that can demonstrate a “verifiable plan for indigenous capacity development.”
State-owned Romaero has signed an MoU with Sikorsky for the local production and maintenance of Black Hawk helicopters. The MoU calls for the establishment of an equipment and maintenance centre focussed on the Sikorsky UH-60. The centre will also complete Black Hawk airframes built in Poland by PZL Mielec.