Michael Bear was speaking in Jeddah following a meeting with the city’s mayor, Hani Abu Ras, and municipality officials at which the city’s strategic plan for dealing with storm water was discussed.
Bear had seen some of the damage from the Jan 26 flood and told Arab News he believed British “world-class” skills in drainage and water management could be put to good use in the city.
Bear has been visiting the Kingdom in a bid to increase Saudi British business, especially in the services sector.
Accompanied by a small delegation, which included the Sheriff of London, Fiona Woolf, he held talks with bankers, city officials and business figures in Jeddah before flying to Riyadh late Saturday afternoon.
The aim of Bear’s trip, he said, was to “further the relationship” between the two kingdoms’ business sectors.
He saw major opportunities for British companies in a number of areas - in particular the mortgage industry (once the new mortgage law is promulgated) and Islamic finance.
At his meeting at the Islamic Development Bank headquarters in Jeddah, IDB president Ahmad Mohamed Ali and other bank officials were invited to London to further discuss Islamic finance as well as a number of educational projects to help poorer members of the Muslim community in the British capital.
Some of these, particularly from the Bangladeshi community, live in areas immediately next to the City of London.
The Saudi insurance market was another area Bear said he thought could see significant British involvement.
At the moment it is miniature. Other than mandatory car insurance, just 0.5 percent of Saudis have insurance.
One area of possible collaboration that interested Bear was airport development.
Three British architectural firms — Atkins, Arup and Pascall & Watson — are involved with Saudi Binladen which won the $7.2 contract in November for the first phase of Jeddah airport’s reconstruction. A new terminal building, parking facilities, an airport hotel and a control tower — the world’s tallest — are due to be completed 22 months’ time.
The position of Lord Mayor of the City of London is separate to that of Mayor of London. The latter runs much of the local administration in the British capital. The Lord Mayor is a historic post dating back 850 years.
The holder, chosen annually, heads the administration in the square-mile City of London, which while physically small, is the center of the UK’s banking and financial industry.
As well as a ceremonial role, the Lord Mayor also acts as a roving ambassador for British business.
A Lord Mayor has been coming every year to the Kingdom, but because the holder of the post changes annually, this was the first to Saudi Arabia by Bear.
Fiona Woolf, as Sheriff of London, knows the region well, having worked in Bahrain.
