Mubadala Development Co. PJSC, a strategic investment and development company owned by the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Boeing to explore aerospace opportunities.

Until now the region has been a very large purchaser of aircraft, but has not played a significant role in aerospace investment. The MoU with Boeing is the first relationship Mubadala has established as part of a new aerospace industry implementation strategy. The company expects to spend between $4 and $6 billion dollars over the next two to three years.

Waleed Ahmed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Mubadala’s COO, told Aviation International News, “We already have assets on the ground like MRO facilities, education centers and other great capabilities currently housed with our UAE air force. We’d like to put all that together so we can create a center of excellence that will result in the right kind of employment for Abu Dhabi to diversify the economy and help us develop heavy manufacturing that’s essentially knowledge intensive.”

AIN learned that yesterday Mubadala signed another similar MoU with Lockheed Martin.