https://arab.news/2xxqb
The UK government faces many economic and political challenges at home ahead of the budget in late November. However, the mood continues to be more optimistic abroad.
The latest signal of this overseas positivity came with the visit of Rachel Reeves to Saudi Arabia at the nation’s big Future Investment Initiative summit, the first trip by a UK finance minister to the region in about six years. A £6.3 billion ($4.8 billion) two-way package of new bilateral trade, procurement, and investment commitments was unveiled.
This includes £5 billion of export finance to boost UK manufacturing, plus multimillion-pound investment deals with a range of firms, including Aberdeen Investcorp, Barclays, HSBC, and Quantexa. The big UK business delegation accompanying Reeves included senior executives from Barclays, which announced a new regional headquarters in Riyadh to service clients across the Gulf, and HSBC, which will be relocating its Saudi Arabia headquarters to the King Abdullah Financial District. Correspondingly, Saudi cybersecurity firm Cipher launched its European office in London, and Saudi investors and bankers have made a £75 million investment into British digital bank Vemi.
