Minister of Industry & Mineral Resources launches “Made in Saudi” brand identity design camp, calls for a design true to Saudi culture

H.E. Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources and Chairman of the Saudi Export Development Authority (SAUDI EXPORTS) Mr. Bandar bin Ibrahim Alkhorayef inaugurated today the design bootcamp for the “Made in Saudi” program against the backdrop of “Design the Kingdom’s Industrial identity” campaign. Nine Saudi designers are taking part in the camp after being selected by a panel, from over 400 applicants. 

H.E. Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources highlighted the need for the brand identity for “Made in Saudi” program to reflect the Kingdom’s leading regional and global position, and for the program to serve the Kingdom’s cultural identity and its substantial industrial capacities. H.E. affirmed that the national industry capitalizes on a great heritage of over four decades, and is widely acclaimed across all export markets.

Mr. Alkhorayef added that "Made in Saudi" program is a national project for all Saudis, and that this conviction prompted the idea that the program’s identity should be designed by Saudi men and women, so as to indicate that the identity is purely Saudi-born. He added, "Launching the “Made in Saudi” brand identity design camp strategically aims at creating a unified brand identity for the national industry through local expertise, which will contribute to repositioning the Saudi product and advancing it towards new standards of reliability and excellence at all levels.”

H.E. highlighted the role of the nation's youth in promoting the distinctive position of the national industry domestically and globally, indicating that the Kingdom firmly believes in the potential of its renewable resources, represented by its ambitious youth, and relies on them to transport it to a new stage of innovation and creativity for a better future. Our young talents are the real wealth and their efforts and innovations will contribute to the fulfillment of our astute leadership’s goals in terms of driving the national economy and enhancing the Kingdom's position as a global industrial power that contributes to empowering global production capabilities for a more sustainable future. 

On his part, the Secretary General of )SAUDI EXPORTS( Eng. Saleh Al-Solami commented on the initiative stating that “Since the takeoff of Saudi Vision 2030, substantial efforts and initiatives have been announced by our astute leadership to empower the national industry. At the forefront of these endeavors is the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP) in addition to several other initiatives that have been launched to raise local content elements in the national product, under the supervision of the Local Content and Government Procurement Authority (LCGPA). In this context, LCGPA issued the price preference policy for local content and the mandatory list for national products aiming to increase the public sector’s demand for local products in all industries.”

Alsolami affirmed that the most prominent results of the aforementioned initiatives, namely their contribution to the uninterrupted growth of non-oil GDP and the volume of non-oil exports, which reached about SAR318 billion at end 2019. He noted that despite the decline in the volume of non-oil exports during the first and second quarters of this year as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak, this indicator has reclaimed its upward trend in June. Driven by the industry and mining sector, non-oil exports recorded their highest rise since January 2020 reaching SAR16.6 billion in June, a monthly increase of 32% as compared to May 2020. This sends a strong message on the ability of industrial production to be the safety valve for the national economy and a buffer ready to absorb future shocks and challenges.”

Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication at )SAUDI EXPORTS( and the head of the "Made in Saudi" program, Eng. Mazen AlJasser overviewed the camp was widely welcomed among Saudi Arabia’s young creative society and had attracted more talents than expected from all over the Kingdom. He hailed the creative capabilities and excellent skills of Saudi youth, who have always been pioneers in scoring great achievements in many fields. "These talents will have the honor to participate in designing an innovative brand identity for the national industry, which will be the unified emblem of the national product and a trusted verification of the excellence of Saudi products world-wide.”

On the eligibility criteria to join the program, Aljasser emphasized that the companies wishing to join the program must meet the conditions and standards specified for each sector by the relevant entities. In return, member companies will benefit from competitive advantages including the promotional benefits of using the unified brand which will grant their goods and services easier access into the local, regional, and global markets.

It is worth noting that (SAUDI EXPORTS) is set to launch the “Made in Saudi” program during the first quarter of 2021 in collaboration with its partners within the industrial ecosystem. (SAUDI EXPORTS) recently launched a widespread social media campaign, calling on the creative Saudi community to apply for the bootcamp. The campaign witnessed a large turnout of creative youth, exceeding 400 participants, of which the camp panel selected nine who were divided into three teams to create 3 different designs. The designs will be put forward for an online public vote, yet the final identity design has to be endorsed by H.E. the Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources and H.H. the Minister of Culture.