The Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry is employing a two-pronged approach to accelerate industrial transformation, Assistant Deputy Minister for Industrial Competitiveness and Advanced Manufacturing Ahmed Al Zawawi told Asharq Business (watch, runtime: 6:53). The current Push Policy provides enablers, incentives, and training to raise technological awareness, while a Pull Policy launching in 2026 will link factory performance to ministry incentives, rewarding faster maturity and investment in advanced technologies.

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All part of our industrial strategy: The National Industrial Strategy targets increasing the industrial sector’s GDP contribution by SAR 1.4 tn by 2035 and tripling the number of factories from 12k to over 36k by 2035, Al Zawawi said. The plan will be executed via a two-pronged approach to accelerate industrial transformation.

AMPC is leading the push: The Advanced Manufacturing and Production Center (AMPC), which was launched earlier this year, aims at boosting transformation and aiding factories targeting advanced-manufacturing adoption, including integrating AI, the Internet of Things, automation, and digital twinning into their operations. AMPC operates through three pillars — providing advanced-manufacturing services, building an ecosystem of service providers, and activating supportive programs and policies.

Making its mark from day one: In its first year, AMPC has accredited more than 200 factories, aiming to reach 4k factories by 2030, influence over 30% of existing factories and 60% of new ones to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution standards, train more than 10k people, and facilitate over 5k agreements between factories and service providers.

The center’s Future Factories Program has attracted over 2.5k participant factories, Al Zawawi said, citing case studies showing automation and digital solutions can reduce labor needs by up to 80%, cut costs by more than 20%, and improve product quality. Factories with high concentrations of unskilled labor have been the quickest to adopt advanced technologies, as the operational impact is immediate.

AMPC also offers the Industrial Lighthouses Program, which develops modernization models and guides for companies, through two tiers — Local Industrial Lighthouses, serving as sector-specific examples, and Global Lighthouses, developed in partnership with the World Economic Forum. The Kingdom currently has five industrial lighthouses, with plans to expand this number to between 10 and 20 by 2030.

IN CONTEXT- AMPC is also attracting international technology providers, with participating service providers rising to 180 this year from 100 last year, and recently reaching 200 during a recent exhibition. The ministry aims to expand this network to 1k to meet growing market demand.

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