The UAE recently purchased 200 high mobility vehicles
UAE military vehicle manufacturer NIMR is to start building two versions of its 4×4 armoured vehicles in the North African country.
NIMR’s holding company Tawazun signed a joint-venture agreement with Groupement de la Promotion de l’Industrie Mécanique (GPIM), a company under the Algerian Ministry of National Defense’s Direction des Fabrications Militaires (DFM), last week.
The deal means that Nimr will transfer the technology and manufacturing know-how needed to assemble and produce the 4×4 vehicles in Algeria, said a statement released by the JV. The Nimr UAE team will also work with its Algerian counterpart on human capability training and development to build up the skills of the over 300 Algerian work force.
The JV will, over time, produce several major components in Algeria while certain UAE-made components needed to assemble the cars will be supplied to it by Nimr Automotive. Production is scheduled to begin by the end of 2014.
Saif Al Hajeri, Tawazun CEO said the NIMR-designed vehicles could also soon be available throughout the African continent.
“As the defense manufacturing industry becomes increasingly competitive globally, it is vital for manufacturers to seek out new ways of expanding their business,” said Al Hajeri. “We’ve selected DFM as a partner due to its high standards that match our own, as well as Algeria being a gateway to reach other African markets which could promote new partnership opportunities for us in the near future.”