Dear Members and Friends,
This week started with the global celebration of International Women’s Day. For our part, we are proud to support initiatives that aim to ensure education is accessible to girls around the world — a key foundation to the attainment of true equality.
We had a particularly busy day on Wednesday, with three important events taking place.
We were excited to host the first full meeting of our new Climate Change Working Group, which aims to help provide a platform for Members to engage on areas of interest and stay informed on UN/Government plans and expectations in the lead up to CoP26 and beyond. The first Working Group meeting featured presentations from members Palladium and Mott McDonald on initiatives they have been working on. The group also identified a number of additional themes for further exploration, including carbon storage, and the development of nature-based/low carbon infrastructure. We expect this to be a dynamic and vibrant Working Group. If you are interested in joining, please contact Joe McLynn.
In collaboration with DIT India, we hosted an event focused on the significant Multilateral and Bilateral agency funded opportunities in India’s Infrastructure Sector. During the event, research undertaken by CRISIL for DIT was shared. It detailed the range of funding agencies (FAs) that finance greenfield infrastructure projects in India including: World Bank, AIIB, JICA, NDB, EIB, KfW and AFD. It also highlighted that there were potential opportunities of over £37billion available until 2023 in a broad range of sectors — spanning rail, road/bridges, water/sanitation and climate change. The event highlighted the benefit of working with these organisations as they deploy standard procurement conditions and provide guaranteed payments. BEI will continue to make these types of opportunities more visible to Members.
We also hosted a review of the ‘2021 Annual Survey of UK Public Opinion on Foreign Policy and Global Britain’. Our colleague, Sophia Gaston, Director of the British Foreign Policy Group shared key insights from the review with members from the Development sector. She shed light on the public’s attitudes to UK aid, and given the enthusiastic feedback from participants, we anticipate further collaboration with Sophia and the BFPG moving forwards.
Finally, on Friday, I was delighted to take part an ‘In The Spotlight’ interview with Infrastructure Intelligence editor, Andy Walker. In case you missed it, you can read about the interview here, and follow this link to watch a recording.
Next week…
On Tuesday 16th, we are expecting the release of the first part of the long-awaited Integrated Review, covering UK foreign, security, defence and development policy. ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age’ is expected to outline our foreign policy objectives and National Security Strategy.
On Wednesday 17th March, building on the momentum and impact created by our Education Working Group, we look forward to learning about the many Education Export Opportunities in Southeast Asia. The event, in partnership with The British Council, will provide insights into the latest regional response to the COVID-19 crisis and focus on opportunities for UK companies in the education sector.
Future event highlights…
On Tuesday 23rd March, Emma Samman and Moizza Binat Sarwar from the Overseas Development Institute will share insights from the ‘Leave No One Behind’ report. They will discuss long-standing barriers to progress on ending extreme poverty and examine the implications for policy and practice on how to turn concept into action.
On Thursday 25th March, continuing the theme of poverty relief, we will hear from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) on ‘Assessing DFID’s Results in Nutrition’. Whilst the government has reached some of the world’s poorest countries with nutrition services, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant rise in malnutrition. Join us to hear from ICAI, UNICEF Zambia and the FCDO on the key successes and limitations of DFID’s nutrition policies.
On Wednesday 31st March, the InfraCo Africa team will introduce their work in providing funding and expertise needed to develop infrastructure projects in Africa into viable investment opportunities. Join us to hear about their current projects and gain insights on how to navigate the procurement process.
With Best Wishes
Derrick
Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International
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Upcoming Events
The events below will be hosted via webinar. For any event registration support please contact Matthew Gibbons. Click on titles to access full event details. The full calendar of events can be viewed here and recently added event dates are highlighted with an asterisk*.
15th March — Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
17th March — British Council — Education Export Opportunities in South East Asia
18th March — Infrastructure Exports Working Group
23rd March* — Leave No One Behind — Concept to Action
25th March* — ICAI -Assessing DFID’s Results in Nutrition
31st March — InfraCo Africa
5th April — Education Working Group
19th April — Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
20th April — Azerbaijan Deep-Dive
22nd April — Kyrgyzstan Deep-Dive
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External News & Events
Our sister company, The D Group, released a new report yesterday on ‘Rebalancing the UK national security machinery to think, plan and act strategically’.
15th — 19th March — Kyrgyzstan — the Connect.KG virtual conference that will bring together local and international start-ups, digital businesses, and IT industry specialists. https://connectkg.com/
23rd March — In collaboration with the Mexico Business Integrity Initiative, the Department for International Trade (DIT) and the FCDO are hosting a webinar on ‘Doing Business in Mexico and Across Latin America: Opportunities, Realities, and Available Support’.
23rd March — The Department for International Trade will host a conference on resilience with speakers from tech, regulation, insurance and policymakers. Read more about the conference here: The Business of Resilience Conference 2021.
23rd March — The 6th Serbian Property Development Conference ‘Developing the Future’ event by the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the event is to exchange ideas and information about the property and infrastructure development sector in Serbia and the wider region. BEI members are offered discounted attendance.
30th March — In collaboration with IADB, Department for International Trade (DIT), will host a webinar on Procurement with the Inter-American Development Bank, about key procurement processes, future strategic sectors and projects.
30th — 31st March — Six Flags Quiddiya — Supplier Fair, in preparation for the construction of Six Flags in Quiddiya, Saudia Arabia, Bouygues Batiment International is currently seeking to engage UK suppliers for the proposed construction works, anticipated to start in the summer of 2021.
6th- 9th April — Brazil — Embraer Virtual Technology Showcase. Embraer are designing a new regional aircraft and are looking for future technologies, such as batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen fuel and connective manufacture through Industry 4.0. For more information, contact: alan.fisher@trade.gov.uk
21st and 22nd April — Using Drones to Map Habitats. The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has a two-day interactive online course and invite applications.
Evidence Synthesis to inform policy and business decision making. The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has an online course to introduce Evidence Synthesis. The training also involves a very practical mini-QSR, developing review questions and undertaking a review.
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