JEDDAH, 30 March 2004 — “We bring a message of support: we want to get back to the kind of strong relationship that we all want to see,” said the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Robert Finch, yesterday on the first day of a three-day visit to the Kingdom. “There is lots of work to be done between Saudi Arabia and London.”
His visit to the Kingdom, accompanied by a delegation of eight senior businessmen, is to explore potential business opportunities between the City of London and the Kingdom.
“With the strong group of businessmen we bring, we want to give every opportunity to Saudi Arabia to say, yes, the UK, that’s the best place to take advice from,” he said.
The lord mayor sees his role abroad as a cross between representing the City of London and representing the UK government.
“One of the things we pride ourselves on in the City is that we are nonpolitical,” he said. He feels that if the City took a political stance, it would lose the position it has as a business center. “It is immensely important in the position I have to be completely nonpolitical,” he said.
Acknowledging the US as the lone superpower, he said its financial and military muscle could be used in the resolution of disputes worldwide.
He emphasized that the relationship between the UK and the US has a long history and affirmed Britain’s dedication to that bond. “The priceless nature of that partnership I hope will never be broken,” he said.
But Finch hinted at an area for development that may result from movements in the historically close relationship that the Kingdom has with the US.
He pointed to the fact that the number of students studying in the US from Saudi Arabia has fallen from 19,000 to 2,000 over the last year and a half.
“Is there a view that Britain looks at and treats Saudi Arabia slightly differently? It is not mine to question this relationship, but to encourage the relationship between Britain and Saudi Arabia into being a positive and fruitful one.”
He pointed out that Saudi Arabia and the UK face similar challenges in building infrastructure and a privatized economy, and offered an open door to advice and cooperation.
“We have the experts, bankers, insurance — all the expertise that will allow SA to begin a process of privatization — to help obtain expertise for some of the major infrastructure projects here.”
Outlining some of the issues that face the Kingdom and that need to be addressed — like water and sewage treatment in Jeddah, railways, electricity generation — he said: “We can help.”
Business between the Kingdom and the UK, however, would not be one-way. “We want to use the expertise we have to help the Kingdom, introduce more investments here and to encourage the flow of Saudi money into the UK.”
Looking to the long term, Finch hopes to attract Saudi students into UK schools and universities and, following the success of a project in Egypt, “to get the universities in the UK to look at coming here and establishing a meaningful step towards establishing a UK university here.”
Thus the meeting with the mayor of Jeddah he felt was particularly interesting. Finch has a career history in property and commercial law and building development, and his interest showed in the subject of their of discussions.
They discussed plans to take one of the brightest young members of the Planning Department in Jeddah, “to spend some time in the City and see how we plan our urban areas.”
At a meeting with the mayor of Jeddah, both agreed that they should cooperate in teaching and developing exchanges between students.
Jeddah and London face some of the same development problems, “particularly harmonizing the architecture of new buildings with their environment, traffic, transportation,” Finch said. Although London has fewer problems with sewage and wastewater, “we have other problems — education for example,” he said.
Is the Middle East an area of immense importance to him? “The answer to that is simply and emphatically, yes; it is important.”
Although he had been in the Kingdom for only a few hours, Finch had already formed an impression of how the tour will develop. “My first impression is that I think we will have very fruitful three days,” he said.
