The UK Trade & Investment team in Jeddah promotes UK exports and services in the western, southern and some parts of the northern regions of Saudi Arabia; our jurisdiction covers approximately 60 percent of Saudi Arabia.
UK Trade & Investment offers a wide range of services tailored to the needs of individual UK businesses by providing them with information, knowledge, advice and practical support in world markets. It focuses on sectors and markets where its work can add most value for the UK economy.
These include high growth markets (Saudi Arabia being one of them) and high value sectors, e.g. ICT, life sciences, financial services, creative industries, energy, defense & security, advanced engineering and low-carbon technologies. UK Trade & Investment’s latest independent monitoring survey showed that 68 percent of the UK companies reported significant business benefits last year, with a large proportion recognizing its importance in helping them overcome barriers in new overseas markets, thus enabling them to improve their business performance. By the end of the first nine months last year, UK Trade & Investment helped some 23,000 UK-based companies improve their overseas business performance, hence generating over £3.6 billion of added value to the UK economy.
Reporting to Riyadh, UK Trade & Investment, Jeddah leads in the airports, environment/water and ports sectors. Our staff are already well-versed with expansion projects and the building of new airports in Jeddah, Madinah, Tabuk, Al-Ula and other towns. We have good working relations with the Saudi General Authority for Civil Aviation as well as companies that have interests in airport business.
Our team is available to put Saudi public and private sector contacts in touch with their appropriate UK counterparts. UK airport strengths cover almost all airport disciplines, having worked in most parts of the world, not only in design and construction projects (e.g. Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, John F. Kennedy in New York, Beijing Terminal 3 and Madrid airports), but more recently in the operation, ownership and commercial development of international airports.
The UK was the first to privatize its airports and can offer privatization models that suit a particular country’s requirements. The UK also leads the world in the commercial development of airports achieving revenues per passenger that set an industrial benchmark. Many UK operators are involved in airports in US, Australia, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary. In Saudi Arabia, Buro Happold of the UK assisted in the design works for the Royal Hangar projects at Riyadh and Jeddah, Zoeftig supplied seating for the Rush Program at the King Abdulaziz International Airport and Tabuk Airport, and British Aerospace is conducting works at the Dammam International Airport.
The UK’s Environment and Water sectors also have an international reputation and world-leading capabilities with outstanding solutions and services. Its unique combination of traditional industrial expertise and scientific excellence, with strong innovative approaches to technology, policy and regulation, have ensured global competitive advantage. The UK is a world leader in contaminated land remediation. Many of the most innovative products for the reduction or capture of carbon emissions have come from the UK. A key example of the UK’s prominence in this area is its emissions trading scheme, the first of its kind in the world, which has placed London at the hub of the international carbon market. Our environmental goods and services sector is projected to grow to $74 billion by 2015. We are also a world-class provider in the field of environmental consultancy, greenhouse gas abatement markets, laboratory analysis, emissions monitoring and instrumentation. Our team has helped our friends in Saudi Arabia tackle some of the most environmentally difficult problems by first rewriting Saudi standards and assisting the Presidency of Meteorology & Environment in their capacity building projects.
A UK company has also laid down the framework for environmental inspection in Saudi Arabia. We have also held a number of environmental and water seminars in the country and invited a large cross-section of the Saudi community to attend. A number of Saudi delegations have also visited the UK and attended workshops and met with UK environment and water companies recently.
Some recent successes that the UK Trade & Investment team has enjoyed include the establishment of a SR30 million laboratory by the UK’s Exova, the arrival of the first batch of waste municipal bins from Taylor (that can now be seen on Jeddah’s corniche), Scott Wilson’s assistance with the Jeddah Development & Urban Regeneration Company, Atkins projects at the King Abdullah University and Jazan Economic City, and a number of environmental consultancy projects that were recently carried out with some Saudi companies. The UK is also well-placed to share its skills and knowledge in the water sector with the rest of the world. Drawing on 30 years’ experience of developing integrated water resource management techniques, the sector now boasts an industry which, in world terms, is excellent. The UK was the first country to privatize its water sector. UK companies involved with the water sector have also had a long history of working successfully in world markets and between them generate over $30 billion of business annually overseas. Analysts predict that British water companies are poised to occupy global leadership positions in the market within the next 10 years.
In Saudi Arabia, we maintain close working relationships with the Ministry of Water & Electricity, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation and the private sector. Hyder of the UK was instrumental in assisting the privatization of Jeddah water consultancy project whilst in Riyadh, Halcrow played a leading role in the privatization of Riyadh water.
HSBC has also been instrumental in providing financial packages for a number of independent water & power projects in the country, whilst Utility Technology Services, Biwater, Weir and a number of other UK water companies are currently working on various other water projects. Severn Trent and United Utilities have also been shortlisted for the privatization of the Greater Dammam and Taif water projects. We have also arranged for a senior Saudi Ministry of Water official to speak at water gatherings in London and Belfast this month at which UK companies will get to know more about Saudi Arabia’s water requirements and upcoming water projects.
The transformation of the UK ports industry in recent decades has created a thriving and highly competitive industry, which is developing world class facilities using leading edge technologies. As countries across the globe have watched the results, there has been growing demand for the services of the British ports sector to repeat the UK success. From the development of ideas and models through to planning, management, training, maritime services to security, UK companies are now exporting specific skills in all component areas of the ports sector.
The UK Trade & Investment team is working closely with the officials of the Saudi Ports Authority in our region and has taken a number of officials to the UK, as well as organized a ports seminar late last year. This has resulted in the training of the first batch of 20 Saudi pilots in the UK, with another batch of students to follow. We are also closely following expansion projects at Jeddah Port, King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu, Jazan and Dhuba ports. Another UK company is currently discussing the possibility of building three new berths at the King Fahd Industrial Port in Yanbu. UK Trade & Investment stands committed to assisting engines of progress in the region of Saudi Arabia and would be more than happy to assist Saudi businesses tap into the technologies and experiences of our UK companies in order to strengthen the bonds of business relationships between our two nations. More information on the services provided by the Jeddah team may be obtained by e-mailing us at [email protected]
