ALKHOBAR, 22 January — The UK has been quite busy this week in the region with the business of doing business. They are participating in the Saudi-European Trade Mission making its way across the Kingdom. They also have the British Trade Mission to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi traveling in the GCC through Jan. 28. This mission is made up of representatives from A & M Hearing, Ashville College, Bencere Elliott, Booth Industries, Canford Audio, Central Cables, Continental Conveyor, One Northeast, Profins, RB Valvetech, Training International, and Watts Industrial Tyres.
The British Trade Mission chose to spend all its time in the Kingdom in the Eastern Province. The mission manager, John Marks, stated that this was because they wanted to maximize the opportunities for the businessmen to make contacts, but they did not want to exhaust them by flying from city to city nightly.
"Different sorts of industries are located in the Kingdom’s major cities," explained Marks. "This is a general mission made up of members from many different types of industries and they were best served by meeting representatives from the large trading houses, health care providers, government leaders and major industries found here in the Eastern Province."
Marks felt that in a very diverse mission, such as the one he was leading, it could be very difficult to satisfy the needs of all the participants. Many missions come to the Kingdom alone without visiting other GCC nations, simply due to time constraints.
"While we are shifting our focus to Qatar from Tuesday, some of the participants will definitely be flying back to Saudi Arabia after the mission ends to visit contacts in Riyadh and Jeddah," Marks said. "It just depends on how much time the individual participants can devote to the area."
This is a relatively small mission compared to some British groups that came to the Kingdom in the past. Marks emphasized that this is not a negative development as previously some companies were included who really had no hope of doing business in the region. "This trade mission is made up of good companies with good products for niche markets and experience in marketing them abroad," said Marks.
"I believe that all of them will do very well despite the strength of the sterling pound. If you notice, there are no general consumer goods companies. We have found that the local businessmen are already well aware of them and they know how to procure these items globally. Saudi companies have become very price conscious, but they are also looking for quality. It’s well known that quality products targeted to serve market needs are the choice of companies everywhere."
