British Ambassador to (Maaal): PIF invested 21 billion pounds in UK over 4 years

In an interview with (Maaal), Neil Crompton, the British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia; revealed that The Public Investment Fund invested 21 billion pounds sterling (about 100 billion riyals) in the United Kingdom during the past four years, that is, since the Corona pandemic, and these investments were distributed among several sectors such as infrastructure, some advanced technology companies, and football through the purchase of Newcastle FC. United.

Crompton added in an interview with the newspaper (Maaal): The Public Investment Fund is not the only investor in the United Kingdom from the private sector in Saudi Arabia. Rather, there are many investors from the private sector, as SABIC invested one billion pounds in decarbonizing its chemical plant in Northeast England, Al Fanar Group is building a sustainable aviation fuel plant in the United Kingdom worth one billion pounds, stressing his desire for renewable energy, green hydrogen and blue hydrogen to become areas in which we want to work with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, according to the Ministry of Investment, the United Kingdom is the second largest foreign investor in Saudi Arabia with about $16 billion in investment shares, and it embraces more than 50 major British companies, with the aim of achieving the goals of Vision 2030, to increase investments by more than 3.3 trillion riyals, from various sectors.

Regarding the free trade discussions between the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the United Kingdom, the ambassador said: This is a very important agreement for us. The GCC is the UK’s fourth largest market in the world, so we are very big trading partners. I believe that both sides want to reach an ambitious agreement.

The British Ambassador to Riyadh explained that Kimmy Fadnak, Minister of State for Trade of the United Kingdom, spoke with ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council during the past days, as the negotiators have worked hard recently, and we now hope to make progress and reach a result very soon.

Crompton continued: The Gulf Cooperation Council countries are the fourth largest trading partner of the United Kingdom in the world. It is a lot of money, and it is trade and investment in both directions, and there are a lot of British investments in all the Gulf countries, and there are a lot of Gulf investments in the United Kingdom, so we want Improving these relations and the free trade agreement between the two nations will be of great commercial value to both sides, and I believe this is a political commitment on the part of both the Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Kingdom towards a very historic relationship.

Last week, Riyadh hosted the “Together for a Great Future” forum in the presence of 2,200 people concerned with economic affairs from the Saudi and British sides, presented by Oliver Dowden, British Deputy Prime Minister, accompanied by 7 ministers, while 10 ministers from the Saudi side participated.

The forum, which was held over two days, witnessed the attendance of 450 British companies, 70% of which were coming to Saudi Arabia for the first time. More than 20 bilateral ministerial meetings were held, 13 agreements were signed, 50 dialogue sessions were held in which 130 participants spoke, and 10 workshops were organized in which more than 400 participants participated. It dealt with initiatives related to the work of the Economic and Social Committee of the Saudi-British Strategic Partnership Council in 13 economic sectors, most notably tourism, culture, education, health, sports, investment, trade and financial services.