JEDDAH, 11 February 2006 — The Lord Mayor of London, Alderman David Brewer, will address the Jeddah Economic Forum today. He will applaud Saudi Arabia’s booming investment in its infrastructure and review the place of financial services and the role of insurance in the development of the Kingdom. He sees the investment in infrastructure as an opportunity to create mutual business, employment and further to enhance the longstanding relations between Saudi Arabia and the UK.
Brewer told Arab News that he hoped to succeed in demonstrating to the financial community here that London had reached its current world status by being open.
“That is exactly what makes us the leading financial center. People have nothing to fear about opening up; quite the opposite,” said Brewer.
Through his visit, he said that he wants to encourage British companies to take note of the Kingdom’s expansion.
“The City of London can share experience,” said Brewer. “Our experience of what works well there might be of interest to our friends in the Kingdom.”
He gave the example of hospitals and schools that might never have been built if the projects had relied on government money.
He also addressed the opportunity to develop human resources in the Kingdom; his delegation includes experts from the UK’s Financial Services Skills Council.
“We want to help the Kingdom train people,” he said. “We hope to help train for business as well as do business.”
Brewer said that there were a significant number of Shariah-compliant products in London, including two syndicates at Lloyds.
“We want to make that available and make people aware of that,” he said.
He noted that Gulf countries have already opened banks in London and want to expand into insurance.
As the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries open up and develop non-oil based commerce, particularly in financial services, Brewer sees a close relationship with London as increasingly important.
“A lot of decisions regarding the region are taken in London because here, many managing directors responsible for the MENA are based here,” said Brewer.
London’s lord mayor observed that there was a great deal of liquidity in the region but a dearth of equities — not enough for people to buy. He felt that this might contribute to a stock market bubble. Still, he lauded the Kingdom’s banking regulatory structure.
“The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency is a good regulator,” he said. “The Kingdom is well regulated in financial services and ultimately I think that probably gives as much confidence as anything.”
