May 28, 2021

BEI Weekly Update — 28th May 2021

Dear Members and Friends,

This week saw the appointment of James Bowler as the new Permanent Secretary for the Department for International Trade, who had most recently been leading the Covid Taskforce. We wish James well and look forward to his support in driving export and investment promotion as well as supporting UK businesses venture into new markets. Details about his appointment can be found here.

We have had three excellent events this week. On 25th May, we were joined by speakers from GovRisk, BritCham Indonesia, Allen and Overy, the British Embassy in Jakarta, and the Law Society, who launched their ‘Doing Legal Business in Indonesia’ guide. This practical guide for businesses looking to do business in the country provided invaluable guidance to a broad cross section of members.

On 27th May, we ran a Deep Dive on Ethiopia. We were joined by Mark Dittmer-Odell, DIT Country Director for Trade and Investment, and Sewit Desta, Senior Education Adviser at the FCDO. They detailed both the opportunities and challenges across Infrastructure and Education, and will be sharing more detail on the recently released Transport Strategy, which highlights a number of long-term opportunities across Infrastructure. The event was not recorded, but if you want to learn more about how to access opportunities in Ethiopia, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Ingrid.

On the same day we also hosted a closed roundtable with Helen Grant MP, Trade Envoy to Nigeria, where members had an opportunity to discuss their experiences of doing business in the country and shared some of the challenges they have faced. We have a number of Trade Envoy roundtables planned over the coming months. If you are interested in participating in any of these, please contact Ingrid.

We are seeing very positive interest in our annual ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ series, and as next week is a short week, I wanted to draw your attention to the first four events taking place in w/c 7th June, covering Central Asia and South Caucasus, Francophone Africa, East Africa and South East Europe. This series provides a great opportunity to get the latest economic and political updates as well as areas of opportunity for companies working in or wishing to explore new markets. To find out more and register, click on the regions you are interested in, or on the events page for details.

Finally, for those of us in the UK, it looks as if summer is finally beginning to emerge after a very wet and cold May. Thankfully, for once, it is also coinciding with a Bank Holiday, so — my BBQ is out and ready, I would like to wish you all a warm and sunny long weekend and look forward to catching up in June.

With Best Wishes
Derrick

Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International

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Upcoming Events

Currently all our events are hosted virtually and look forward to exploring 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 June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ Central Asia & South Caucasus

8th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ Francophone Africa

9th June — Doing Business in Pakistan

10th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ East Africa

10th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ South-East Europe

15th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ Middle East

15th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ West Africa

15th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ Latin America

16th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ South Asia

16th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ Southern Africa

17th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ South-East Asia

17th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ North Africa

17th June — ‘Meet the British Ambassadors’ The Caribbean

22nd June — Closed Roundtable Discussion with Trade Envoy Mark Menzies MP

24th June — Closed Roundtable Discussion with Trade Envoy Mark Menzies MP

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External News & Events

8th June — BSCC will participate in the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce’s business week event on renewables opportunities. Follow this link to read more and register for your place at the business week.

8th June — Join SBJBC in an engaging webinar showcasing: Technology and Digital Cooperation Opportunities at NEOM & THE LINE. Interactive panels will follow on opportunities for innovative UK and Saudi companies to partner on the technology infrastructure required for this visionary project.

9th — 10th June — UK Export Finance will be hosting a Supplier Fair: Agricultural Development in Africa for UK exporters, covering the various sustainable food production projects across Africa.

13th — 16th July — The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology will deliver an interactive online course on Spatial Analysis in QGIS and R — An Introduction for Environmental Scientists.

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