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Brian Wilson MPThe Arab-British Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner |
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My remarks to you tonight are going to focus unashamedly on the significance of trade. Now, as the Minister for Trade you would expect me to claim that trade is important, but I sincerely believe that the deeper the commercial links between countries and regions, the stronger the overall relationship. Think back hundreds of years when merchants from Europe first began to trade with their Arab counterparts in the souks of the Middle East. How bewildering they must have found it. The sights, smells and sounds must have been amazingly alien to them. But of course there was one important piece of common ground - trade. The basic concept of trade is universal. And it was from the building blocks of barter that understanding, tolerance and friendship were built. That is as true today as it was then. I believe governments have an important role to play in developing a trading relationship. It is for governments to create the framework in which trade can flourish by freeing up markets and allowing free exchange of goods and services, but just as crucial is the relationship created by the daily contacts of the companies and individuals who are responsible for the quite phenomenal level of trade which happens between Britain and the Arab world. I would like to spend a little time explaining just how the British Government helps the process of trade between us. There are over 2,000 British Civil Servants directly responsible for the promotion of trade. Included in this figure are the commercial sections in more than 200 Diplomatic Posts world-wide. These are the people at the sharp end responsible for rooting out business opportunities and looking for market trends and developments in both the public and private sectors. They also promote two-way foreign direct investment and maintain links with their host governments to discuss issues of trade policy and the framework for our commercial relationship which I mentioned a moment ago. It is my belief that this network of British and their talented and knowledgeable locally engaged staff is the most comprehensive in the world. Certainly when I talk to my opposite numbers in the EU they are envious of the integrated system we have. Here in London, the DTI has over fifty staff promoting trade between the UK and the Arab world and running the key export promotion programmes I will mention in a moment. I am pleased to see so many of them here tonight and would like to thank the Chamber for inviting them this and every year to the Annual dinner. This is typical of the warm relationship that exists between the Chamber and the Department. In addition to the career civil servants at the DTI we have - on loan to the Department from private industry - some eight Export Promoters covering the region. These are all senior businessmen. They are experts in exporting and provide tremendous added value to the Department?s work in promoting trade. Their expertise is particularly useful for the small and medium sized companies who are new to or inexperienced in exporting. At the local level the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices all have their own comprehensive support systems for companies looking to export. In addition in England we have the countrywide network of Business Links each of which has an International Trade Team and an Export Development Counsellor. Business Links are the one-stop shop for SMEs looking for help and advice. Business Links are the crucial interface between SMEs and the remainder of the Overseas Trade Services network. So, having described the infrastructure of the support network what help do we give to British companies? Have you got all evening? We can help with information. Off-the-shelf or detailed research. That information can come from the Diplomatic Posts, from Business Links and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Offices, the DTI trade desks, the Export Market Information Centre or the DTI web site. Every week we get around one thousand enquiries from a huge range of companies and people who want to know more about doing business in the Arab world. That in itself tells you something of the importance of the region?s business. The Department supports many official trade missions to the region. Earlier this month the Secretary of State announced that sixty missions will visit the Arab world in the financial year 1999/2000. At the same time he confirmed that British groups will be supported at over fifty events under the Support for Exhibitions and Seminars Abroad scheme. I estimate that this will enable us to give financial and advisory support to around three thousand companies who want to go to your part of the world and who want to do business there. But it is not all one way traffic. I said at the outset that it was trade which builds relationships and that is what I meant. Not exports. Trade. As in "Minister for". I am acutely aware that the balance of trade between Britain and the Arab world is heavily in our favour. Indeed, it is a unique phenomenon world-wide. Of course I am very grateful for this and I daresay my Treasury colleagues are even more so. But I am also keen that we do what we can to encourage your exports to us. I am delighted that we work so closely with Jim Sillars and Karim Al Moudaris and their team in this regard. I know they have done excellent groundwork in establishing seminars and workshops in the Arab world to discuss how exporting can be encouraged. Many countries in the region are experiencing unprecedented levels of diversification with more and more products being manufactured locally - and I suggest it is the responsibility of the governments in the region to help create a system of support for exports. I know that DTI people have travelled with the ABCC team to the Middle East to take part in these seminars and to explain how our system works. We will do this as often as we are asked. And if there is a desire for officials from the region to come to Britain to see how we undertake export promotion, they have an open invitation to come to the DTI and exchange ideas. This is something the Chamber may wish to take up with its partners. I cannot stress too highly that our organisation and yours are natural allies and that we in the DTI take great pleasure in that fact. Just recently we were delighted to have been involved in the Chamber?s Bahrain Week and hopefully added some value to it. Long may such initiatives continue. As should be the case with all market and business-driven organisations, the DTI is constantly seeking to develop and improve the service we offer to our exporting community, and I would like to spend a little time telling you about some of the latest products on offer... Central to our future operation is the establishment of "TradeUK". Using the very latest in Information Technology the DTI, the FCO and the world-renowned Dialog Corporation have combined their expertise to produce the most comprehensive Internet-based exporters database in the world. TradeUK gives British businesses a free entry on the official National Exporters Database. This means that anyone with INTERNET access, anywhere in the world, is able to identify relevant UK suppliers who can export to buyers in their markets. Already over 50,000 companies are on the database and the target is to get double this number by this time next year. In addition subscribers to the TradeUK Export Sales Lead Service will have free access to current and detailed export enquiries supplied by the commercial sections of the British diplomatic posts. These will be sent by e-mail direct to a subscriber?s desk-top. If you only make one note about the speeches this evening I suggest you write down the following website: www.tradeuk.com. Shortly after this Government came into office we instituted a review of export promotion. The resultant Export Forum Report recognised Egypt as one of the top ten emerging markets that offer real opportunities to the UK. Last week Peter Mandelson launched the DTI?s Egypt Promotion Campaign. The Campaign will last three years. Along with our partners (including the Arab British Chamber of Commerce) we will support British company?s efforts to win business in Egypt. No longer will UK companies have a World Wide Wait for information. The Egypt Campaign brings you its World Wide Website "connectegypt". This is the only DTI website devoted solely and exclusively to informing British companies about the opportunities that exist for business in Egypt. Another first is the publication of the first issue of a new quarterly magazine also called Connect Egypt. Our first commercial promotional event under the campaign is Delegation Egypt Mission 100 to Cairo and Alexandria. Not only will this event be the largest business delegation to visit Egypt but is also the largest to North Africa and the Middle East. This, I believe, clearly highlights the current attraction of Egypt. In April 1999 we shall be organising the Delta Roadshow - a travelling catalogue exhibition which will visit six centre in the Delta region promoting UK trade and investment. Again, this breaks new ground, and will be the first UK event of its kind that will highlight opportunities outside of Cairo and Alexandria. Another major initiative is the Gulf Leisure Experience. Right through the Arabian Peninsula governments and private sector organisations are investing heavily in tourism development, leisure and entertainment complexes and sports facilities. It is estimated that spending in the sector will exceed five billion pounds in the coming few years. The DTI?s Arabian Peninsula team identified this sector as being one of exporting?s best kept secrets - after all, not many people immediately identify the Gulf with leisure, tourism and sport. Now, in partnership with the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, they are well into a three-year, £1 million campaign, aimed at telling British companies about the vast opportunities in the sector, taking them on missions to meet the key players and helping them to take part in leisure sector exhibitions. This is, to my mind, a terrific example of switched-on government. We use our knowledge to create a vehicle for business. There is an old Chinese curse which says "may you live in interesting times". Well, these certainly are interesting times in the global economy. The Far East, South-East Asia, Russia, Latin America are all experiencing more interest than is good for them. So far, the Arab world has not felt the worst of the storms and I very much hope that that will continue to be the case. I believe the region offers some of the most exciting and sustainable trade opportunities anywhere in the world. Of course there are challenges ahead. The need to liberalise trade and liberalise capital. The challenges of privatisation, diversification, localisation. But these are opportunities, not threats. There is so much work to be done in the field of human resource development. In many countries in the Arab world the demographics show dramatic changes in population age profile. Your countries are getting younger! The challenges of how to educate, train, entertain and employ a burgeoning youth population are huge but it can be done - and we can help. Fifty British companies will be in Bahrain later this month for the Human Resource Middle East exhibition and conference. This is symptomatic of the depth of the sector and our interest in what you are doing. I saw an article in "The Economist" last week - the same magazine, by the way, that had a front cover some years ago entitled "The Fall of the House of Saud" - called "The Suffering Gulf". Gloom and doom. Oil price low - chaos ahead. Can this be the same region which recently announced at the GCC Banking Conference that infrastructure projects worth $68 billion would be executed in the next eight years? Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I hope these few words have convinced you of our belief in the power of trade to create wealth, opportunity and understanding. There are plenty of distractions in the region and it would be foolish and wrong to pretend that everything in our relationship with the Arab world is straightforward or rosy. But there is such a firm foundation in that relationship, exemplified by our association with the ABCC and personified by the audience here tonight. You are a unique group and it has been my very great pleasure and privilege to have addressed you. Shookran. Assalaam alekum. (Thank you. Peace be upon you.) |
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Other speeches by Brian Wilson MP
(the following are available from the archive) |
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