Dear Members and Friends,

It was, I am sure you will agree, a suitably grand and uniquely British celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last weekend. However, after a long weekend, we have landed back in the office with a series of impressive events and a very exciting programme to follow over the next few weeks.

Our panel event on ‘Resilience in the Built Environment’ covered presentations from BEI members Mace, Options and Ricardo. They shared some excellent case studies that highlighted the concept of resilience through their organisations’ fields of expertise in a variety of areas, such as reconstruction, retrofitting and health. These followed a brief introduction to the Built Environment Report the working group published last year.

We were honoured to host an event launching a new policy brief on recovering learning loss and rebuilding education in the ASEAN region in partnership with the Vietnamese Embassy-Chair of the ASEAN Education Sector — and Cambridge Partnership for Education. This was in follow up to an excellent event that our Education Working Group conducted with all Ministries of Education in the ASEAN region in March. Whilst not all countries experienced the same education challenges in the wake of Covid-19, there was significant common ground. The roundtable discussion is summarised in the policy brief, which is available here. It provides the bases for recommendations which focus on learning loss, access and resilience.

We hosted a lunch with Lynette Wood, Australia’s Acting High Commissioner to the UK, who shared some insights and ambitions for growing UK-Australia trade as well as perspectives on key areas of opportunity for UK companies in Australia. There is a wide range of areas of opportunity including in sectors such as infrastructure, cyber security, technology, and fintech. We will be exploring these areas in more detail as we look to host the Australian State trade representatives in the coming months.

Finally, we hosted Andrew Palmer, Director of Global Affairs and colleague Toby Bateman, Global Affairs Advisor at British International Investment (BII) previously the CDC Group as they presented on the UK’s development finance institution’s new 2022–2026 strategy and key highlights on its role as part of the UK Government’s international development financing offer. Priority areas outlined included Infrastructure and Climate Change, SMART Industries, Financial Services with a geographic focus on Africa and the Indo-Pacific region. Their operating mantra remains the same as it has for decades, to ‘do good without losing money’.

Our congratulations to our member De La Rue who successfully hosted their annual event on Thursday night in honour of the Diplomatic Corps in London. De La Rue operates on a truly global scale, working with governments, central banks, and commercial organisations to provide products and services that underpin the integrity of trade. It was great to connect with such a wide range of diplomats many of whom we engage with in our pursuits explore trade and business opportunities for our members.

This coming week sees the kick off of our annual ‘Meet the Ambassadors’ series. Rather than detail something about each event, I will simply highlight the regions and dates for the two weeks ahead:

13th June — West Africa, 14th June — Middle East (GCC) and The Caribbean, 15th June — East and Central Africa and Latin America, 16th June — Central Asia and North Africa, 21st June — South Asia and Southern Africa, 22nd June — Southeast Asia and Middle East (non-GCC), 23rd June — Western Balkans.

We look forward to a great fortnight where we will be able to interact with over 65 Heads of Mission, and hope that as many of you will be able to engage virtually with the markets you are most interested in.

Our team will be taking the chance to rest a little over the weekend before this busy period; I hope that you will also be able to relax and enjoy the weekend ahead.

With Best Wishes
Derrick

Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International

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Don’t forget…

See our full events programme here, and to enquire about becoming a member of BEI, register your interest here.

Join our Working Groups — as part of our member focus, the working groups offer opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement, learning & sharing, profiling expertise & capabilities and highlighting thought leadership. Groups include Climate Change, Education and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details please contact Joe McLynn.

Join our LinkedIn Group and keep up with our news and our upcoming events highlights. Members can also post and share latest news and thought leadership. Join the group here.

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Upcoming Events

For any event registration support please contact the events team. Click on titles to access full event details. The full calendar of events can be viewed here.

13th June — Meet The Ambassadors: West Africa

14th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Middle East (GCC)

14th June — Meet the Ambassadors: The Caribbean

15th June — Meet the Ambassadors: East and Central Africa

15th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Latin America

16th June — Meet The Ambassadors: Central Asia

16th June — Meet the Ambassadors: North Africa

21st June — Meet the Ambassadors: South Asia

21st June — Meet the Ambassadors: Southern Africa

22nd June — Meet The Ambassadors: Southeast Asia

22nd June — Meet The Ambassadors: Middle East (non-GCC)

23rd June — Meet the Ambassadors: Western Balkans

28th June — Financing the Future: Insights into Mobilising Climate Finance for UK Exporters

29th June — Mind the Gap 2. Seeking Safe and Sustainable Solutions for Girls’ Education in Crises

6th July — Ghana Deep Dive — Market Opportunities

7th July — Gambling on Development — In Conversation with Stefan Dercon

14th July — Lunch with Ambassador of Kyrgyz Republic to the United Kingdom

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External News & Events

28th June — The Saudi British Joint Business Council (SBJBC) is hosting a half-day Renewable Energy Forum in London on 28 June 2022 in partnership with the Lord Mayor and City of London. For further information or to register your interest please contact Cordelia Begbie at operations@sbjbc.org or visit the SBJBC Events Page.

28th — 29th September — Field Electronics and Sensors Training: The one-day BEGINNER course will give you an introduction to electronics as applied to environmental sensors in the field. The one-day ADVANCED course will build on the Beginners course and Learners will gain advanced knowledge on data logging systems, sensors, communication protocols and remote data downloading. Find more details HERE.

Date TBC — The Government of Jamaica intends to commission the construction of a new Parliament building. JAMPRO intends to host a webinar to explain the opportunity — date to be confirmed and will share with members. Please see below details: ePPS — View Competition details (gojep.gov.jm) https://udcja.com/2022/04/04/construction-of-the-new-jamaica-houses-of-parliament-at-national-heroes-park-kingston-jamaica/
https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20201118/us50m-price-tag-new-parliament-building

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