RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s security, stability and investment in advanced infrastructure make the Kingdom a major market for the next generation of automated air mobility, Yvonne Winter, CEO of FlyNow Arabia and president of Sky Alliance for Automated Air Mobility, said during the Security and History Dialogue Conference in Riyadh on Sunday. Winter spoke to Arab News on the opening day of the conference, held at the Cultural Palace in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter. The three-day event is being held under the theme “Our History and Our Future: Security and Prosperity,” bringing together senior officials, scholars and international leaders to examine how national security supports economic growth and social development. “Security and sovereignty are a basis for prosperity,” Winter said. “When we look into history and then toward the future, security enables prosperity. Therefore, I think this is a very important conference. “For companies like ours, which are introducing a completely new form of mobility, investors and partners need to know that the environment is secure, stable and capable of supporting long-term development.” She added: “Investors will only deploy significant money if they know that all the prerequisites are there and that there is a safe, stable and trustworthy environment. “They need confidence that the regulations will develop, that the infrastructure can be built and that the country has the vision and capacity to support an industry over many years. This is why security is so important for investment and innovation.” FlyNow Arabia is developing modular electric aircraft, known as e-copters, for medical evacuation, firefighting, cargo delivery and passenger transportation. The company recently acquired a majority stake of its former Austrian entity and subsequently moved its global headquarters to Riyadh. It also plans to establish its production operations in the Kingdom. “We will produce here in the Kingdom. This is our launch market, and we are going from Saudi Arabia to the world,” Winter told Arab News. “My co-founder and I believe that the Kingdom offers the right environment to develop this technology, build the necessary ecosystem and eventually export the solution to international markets.” Winter described Saudi Arabia as an ideal market for developing advanced air mobility. “Saudi Arabia is the perfect market because it fulfils all the prerequisites,” she said. “It has very strong visionary leadership. It has a young, well-educated population. It has the market size and the needs. “It also has the financial means to develop the entire ecosystem necessary to introduce a new means of transport.” Winter said introducing automated air mobility involves considerably more than manufacturing aircraft. “When we talk about advanced air mobility, we have to consider that we want to deploy low-altitude airspace as much as we can,” she said. “We will have thousands of drones every year — taxis, emergency-response aircraft and cargo vehicles in the air.” In a special address on the opening day, Winter spoke about pursuing international partnerships while maintaining national sovereignty. “Sovereignty does not mean isolation. The Kingdom can work with European, American and Asian companies, including the world’s technology leaders” she told the conference. “However, the architecture, governance, operational authority and critical data must remain under Saudi control. “That is how innovation can enter without creating dependency, because if a nation does not control the data and digital infrastructure that run its critical mobility systems, it does not control the system at all.” Winter later joined the panel “Security and Investment: A Safe Nation and an Industry of Opportunities,” alongside Royal Court adviser Dr. Majid Al-Moneef, who said that development and security are tightly interlinked. “Security and growth are interlinked. Security is essential for growth, and growth is essential for development,” Al-Moneef said. “Growth, in turn, contributes to security by generating the revenues the state needs to build the infrastructure required for further development. “The relationship between security and growth is interlinked, and was a fundamental element in the project to unify Saudi Arabia. “While the Kingdom, the Gulf and the wider region is going through a challenging period, Saudi Arabia’s investment in its security system has helped make it the least economically affected countries in the region, according to the International Monetary Fund,” he told the conference. The panel explored how sovereign stability supports industrial development, encourages innovation and gives investors the confidence to back emerging technologies over the long term.