Jan 28, 2022

BEI Weekly Update — 28th January 2022

Dear Members and Friends,

Whilst the measures around the pandemic are becoming more relaxed, there are clearly many people being affected directly and indirectly. We are mindful of this and will keep you informed about any short-term changes to our Event Plans over the coming weeks.

We hosted two virtual events this week:

On Tuesday 25th January: we were delighted to virtually host the British Ambassador to Armenia, HE John Gallagher, his team and the British Council country director. They provided an overview of doing business in Armenia as well as the sectors and areas of opportunity for UK companies in Armenia such as infrastructure, business services, ICT, extractives and education. In addition, the Ambassador talked about some of the country’s development priorities — including support through the Good Governance Fund (GGF) and the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), aligned to the Armenian government’s reform agenda.

On Thursday 27th January: our regular engagement with Regional Development Banks continued this week with the annual event Doing Business with the European Bank for reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD team provided an overview of navigating the procurement processes and explored their key sectors of focus which includes infrastructure, agribusiness, energy, transport, and natural resources. It was an incredibly insightful event delivered by three excellent speakers on how companies can bid for work with the EBRD as well as the wide range of opportunities EBRD offers suppliers, contractors, and consultants.

This week, our colleague Campbell Keir gave a keynote address to an external event titled “Pakistan, A Land of Opportunities”. The event was designed to highlight the opportunities in the rapidly growing economy of Pakistan. Other speakers included the High Commissioner of Pakistan in London, Mark Eastwood MP, PM’s Trade Envoy to Pakistan, Lord Wajid Khan and many others. It offered insight into the key sectors of the growing economy, the reforms made by the Government of Pakistan and the incentives of offer to promote Trade and Investment. We will be building on this with our own events focusing on opportunities in Pakistan — and more details will be provided in due course.

Sadly, our planned event next week with Turkey’s Ambassador to the UK Ümit Yalçın has had to be postponed. We will notify members of the new date shortly.

The week after next, I would like to draw your attention to three events:

On Tuesday 8th February: we continue our Trade Envoy series with an opportunity to Meet the Trade Envoy for Mongolia Daniel Kawczynski MP. This series provides a great opportunity for members with experience or plans of working in the country to discuss future trade promotion plans and barriers to entry with the Trade Envoy.

On Wednesday 9th February: we are looking forward to an event on The Business Case for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This virtual panel discussion will explore how an effective Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) company policy goes beyond compliance requirements or moral motivation and is becoming a business imperative. The speakers will discuss the many benefits of embedding EDI practices — as applied to an organisation’s staff, business strategy and operations. We encourage all members to invite their C-Suite and senior leadership teams to attend.

On Thursday 10th February: we look forward to the rescheduled in-person Lunch with Louis Taylor, CEO of UK Export Finance. With Finance and funding so critical to all our members, Louis Taylor will share key insights on UKEF’s strategy and priorities and its growing collection of financial packages accessible to UK companies. There are still a couple of places available at this lunch — to reserve a place, please email Ella.

For full details on all upcoming events visit our website here.

Finally, as with so many parents at this current time, I will be spending the weekend looking after my child, who has come down with Covid. I hope your weekends are free of such disruption!

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, infrastructure, D&I, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details 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.

Recruitment Board
Take advantage of the new Job Board on our website to post your organisation’s vacancies, currently this facility is available for free.

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Upcoming Events

Currently most of our events are hosted virtually and we are starting to explore face to face and hybrid event options as the government eases socialising restrictions. 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 and recently added event dates are highlighted with an asterisk*.

8th February — Meet the Trade Envoy for Mongolia Daniel Kawczynski MP

9th February — The Business Case for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

10th February — Lunch with Louis Taylor, CEO of UK Export Finance

15th February* — Morocco Deep Dive

22nd February — Roundtable with Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to South Africa — Andrew Selous MP

23rd February — Opportunities for UK Companies in Nigeria

23rd March — Meet the Trade Commissioner for South Asia, Alan Gemmell

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External News & Events

21st — 25th February — The UK/SG Innovation Partnership Series — Smart Cities, Green Tech, and Circular Economy- DIT in collaboration with the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and Tech Nation, will host a virtual trade mission to Singapore. Apply to participate here.

22nd –24th February — The Department of International Trade is taking a Smart Cities mission to Malaysia. If you would like to attend, please register here.

25th — 29th April — Spatial analysis in QGIS and R — An Introduction for Environmental Scientists. Running over four half-day sessions, this hands-on and interactive online course will give you an introduction to spatial data analysis in an open-source environment. For more information click here and to sign up and pay online click here.