The Trade Commissioner for the Middle East, the United Kingdom anticipates to sign up the Multibillion-Pound investment deal with UAE in clean power as well as infrastructure that overviews for strengthening their trade as well as Investment aids alongside Arab League’s second-biggest economy.
Simon Penney in an interview stated recently that, the UK is overlooking for finalizing the details of investments within the technology arena that is poised in to touch $1Billion ($1.38Bn).
Mr Penney, a former banker who was also appointed the UK’s consul general in Dubai in January, stated out that: “Britain’s Office for Investments, an agency set up this year to promote and channel investments into the UK, expects to get more clarity on the size and scope of potential deals and how they will be structured by the end of June. Deal announcements “most definitely” will take place in the second half of the year. Mr Penney also stated further that, we haven’t put a number on it because we’re deliberately not boxing ourselves in on numbers … the size will be determined by the need. It could be bigger than £1bn.”
He further added out that: “”We haven’t yet developed the other operating models. When you look at infrastructure that is intuitively more likely to be project-based rather than fund-based just because of the scale and complexity of infrastructure. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. It’s going to be tailored and designed to the need of the sector.”
The two nations are also confirming details on how to utilize the capital devoted to the life sciences industry, which produces £80bn in sales a year and offers employments for more than 250,000 individuals in the UK.
The life sciences investment vehicle could also offer financing through fund managers or direct investments.
He also stated out that: “We have a £1bn war chest to deploy between our two governments … and we are looking to work with Mubadala to plug that gap and create a funding ecosystem that doesn’t exist today.”
During March, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, group chief executive of Mubadala stated out that: Mubadala is already a long-term strategic investor in the UK and the alliance offers up a “platform to allocate stable capital” to significance sectors as part of a future-focused investment connection. The sovereign fund, which has an asset base of $232bn, is one of the largest investors in the UK’s clean energy sector and has stakes in offshore wind farms in North Norfolk, East Anglia, off the coast of Aberdeenshire in Scotland, and in the Thames Estuary.
Mr Penney stated investments by Masdar, the clean power subsidiary of Mubadala, into Britain’s renewable energy projects are in excess valued of £1.4bn.
In terms of technology investments, Mr Penney imagines funds to flow into Britain’s FinTech industry as it “vibrates quite significantly”.
The overall size of investments in the technology sector has yet to be strongminded and will be motivated by the market, which is “significant”. It has not yet been obvious if investments will be channelled directly into firms or through an investment vehicle, he added.
The Sovereign Investment Partnership and further potential deals come after Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson met in December to converse consolidation of the relations, which includes enhancing trade ties.
Bilateral exports are anticipated to bounce back sturdily this year and there is noteworthy potential to enhancement the flow of trade between the two nations.
“It’s an ambition that is set by the leadership of our two nations to take this relationship to the next level. This relationship is at a very strong and ambitious phase,” Mr Penney said.
Since leaving the EU last year, the UK is looking to deepen ties with long standing partners in other parts of the world and is laying the groundwork for a free trade agreement with the GCC. Last week, Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liz Truss met officials in the UAE and Riyadh to discuss “what the shape of our future trading arrangement should be”, Mr Penney said.
The UAE is the UK’s sixth-largest trading partner external to the European Union and its principal in the GCC. Trade between the two nations accounted for £18.4bn in 2019, a 6.3 percent upsurge from a year earlier. The number depreciated in 2020 largely due a drip of energy associated exports from the UAE to the UK on the back of the pandemic and prolonged lockdowns.
The GCC is the UK’s third-largest export market external to the EU, post the US and China. Total trade in goods and services between the UK and the bloc raised at £44.5bn in 2019.
“This is already a very, very big export market for the UK and that was done while we were within the EU,” he said. “Since we have left the EU, we now have the independent ability to put in place our own bilateral trade arrangements with countries and unions around the globe.”
