"From the Saudi market opportunities also for SMEs".

The breakthrough year was, for all, 2016, when the Saudi Arabian government launched the country's largest development plan, Vision 2030, which opened Saudi Arabia's doors no longer only to large groups mainly linked to the oil & gas industry, but also to companies from all sectors, particularly in the service and construction sectors, and of all sizes.

"We mainly deal with construction and design, so we would never have thought of arriving in Saudi Arabia without this new vision, which has allowed us to launch numerous projects that require skills and specialisations that are still hard to find on the local market," explains Giuseppe Chiaranda, CEO of Rimond, an engineering and construction company based in Milan and Rome, but also with offices in London, Dubai, Japan and, for the last year and a half, Riyadh, with over 100 million euro in turnover, 70% of which is realised abroad. "We operate as a general contractor on complex, high-value architectural projects, and we have been called upon by important architectural firms to follow some of their works in Saudi Arabia," Chiaranda adds. "This led to the contact with the government, which chose us to realise the country's pavilion at the Osaka Expo in 2025.

However, the new Saudi development plan - which foresees a profound transformation of the national economy by 2030, less based on hydrocarbons and more on manufacturing and services - has accelerated and favoured the activities of the large Italian groups as well, including those that were already present in the country. These include Mapei, whose history in Saudi Arabia began several years ago, explains CEO Veronica Squinzi. "2022 was a crucial year, with the opening of a local subsidiary based in Tabuk, in the heart of the Neom region, where the first production of concrete admixtures in the area was started," says Squinzi. 2024 then saw the acquisition by the Italian group of Bitumat, a leading company in Saudi Arabia in the production and marketing of waterproofing systems, with a large production facility in Dammam, on the east coast, and the opening of a sales office in the capital of the Saudi kingdom. "The aim, in the next two or three years, is to consolidate our presence by investing in production capacity and diversify the portfolio of what is produced locally, in order to meet the growing needs of the country," she adds. Mapei's strategy, given also the type of products manufactured, is to produce locally for the local market. "A fast-growing market from which we expect great satisfaction in the next decade". If in fact the United Arab Emirates remain the most interesting market for Mapei in the Gulf area and the one in which the group has the largest investments, Saudi Arabia "today represents the most dynamic and promising country, with over 110 billion dollars of new projects assigned by 2023, a trend that seems to be confirmed if not even surpassed this year," says Veronica Squinzi.

Even for BBV Group - a small but dynamic Milan-based company specialising in the design and production of metal expansion compensators - the presence in Saudi Arabia dates back many decades, but it is only in the last 8-9 years that there has been a radical change of pace, in this case triggered not only by the Saudi government's new development policies, but also by changes in the group itself, which was born from the integration in 2016 of two historical companies (Alflex, now BBV Tech and Steelflex). The holding company now has 71 employees and a turnover of around EUR 8.5 million, 85% of which is generated abroad. "When I joined the company in 2015, the presence in the Gulf markets was linked to individual supplies for our customers, the large Italian oil & gas groups," says Giovanni Valli, chairman of the group's strategy committee. 'But these are countries where it is very important to be present in person, to get in touch with customers, to meet them, so as to enter their vendor lists,' adds Valli. 'In recent years we have entered the lists of many large customers in Qatar and the Emirates, and we are also working for Saudi Aramco, although we are not yet on their vendor list. In this area, it is crucial to work through a partner in each country, so that we can cover the market and participate in tenders'. Together with the Emirates, Saudi Arabia is by far the most interesting market, according to Valli: 'There are huge projects in the pipeline and for many years we Italian and European companies will certainly have an important slice of the market. The point is to understand what will happen next, i.e. whether we will be able to hold our own against the increasingly fierce competition from the Indians and Chinese. I believe that an important point in our favour is the supply chain model, which the Arabs are looking at with great interest, because they want to develop the manufacturing industry and are therefore very attentive to our small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups'.

Fundamental to the implementation of a plan such as Vision 2030 is the acquisition of skills by Saudi companies and universities themselves. Hence the intensification of exchanges and relations also with the academic and training world, as witnessed by the presence - during the last institutional mission of the Lombardy Region in Riyadh about ten days ago - of many Lombard universities, including the Milan Polytechnic, the State University and the Bicocca University. "Our collaboration with Saudi universities and companies began a few years ago," explained Davide Ponzini, delegate for international relations with the Middle East and professor of Urban Planning at the Politecnico di Milano, "but we wanted to take part in this initiative because it is important for us to always be listening, to understand which channels to strengthen and how the research and innovation scene is evolving, even in the private sector. Saudi Arabia is, moreover, among the countries to which the Politecnico pays the utmost attention: 'It is a country that is evolving rapidly and is facing the problems associated with this modernisation,' Ponzini observes. 'The Politecnico can play an intelligent and useful role for the whole Italian system in this context. The important thing is, in my opinion, to have an approach of openness and confrontation, even on values that are sometimes different from ours, without thinking that we are bringing predefined solutions'. The university already has three important collaboration projects active. The first is a focused project (Desolination), within a European partnership of which Milan University is the lead partner, in collaboration with King Saud University, to test new technologies for solar energy and water desalination. Then there is the collaboration with Kaust, the country's leading science and technology university, with which student mobility projects are also being tested. Of a different nature is the collaboration with The Royal Institute of Arts, which Polimi is helping to develop activities in the field of design and traditional arts. "What works in countries like Saudi Arabia, but more generally in the Gulf area, is an idea of long-term partnership," Ponzini concludes.