In numbers.. Find out the size of Gulf investments in the United Kingdom

LONDON

- Britain has started important talks to reach a trade exchange agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, which has become a primary goal for the British government after exiting the European Union, and Trade Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan is personally supervising these negotiations that are being launched in Riyadh with representatives of the six Gulf countries.

Going back a little, it was no coincidence that the first destination that former Prime Minister Theresa May went to immediately after Brexit was the Gulf region, as she was the guest of honor for its leaders, and the goal is to increase the volume of trade exchanges between London and the Gulf, and to pump larger Gulf investments into the United Kingdom.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently received the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who announced upcoming Qatari investments worth 10 billion pounds (about 12.2 billion dollars) in the coming years. Johnson also met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and during the meeting Abu Dhabi has announced investments of £10 billion in the coming years.

These investments show the growing interest of the Gulf countries in the British market, and they cover part of the decline in foreign investments that Britain has witnessed since 2017.

trade first

Trade exchanges between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Kingdom increased during the period between 2010 and 2019 to reach 41 billion pounds (about 50 billion dollars) by the end of 2019. During this period, British exports to the Gulf countries increased by 48%, while Gulf exports increased towards the Kingdom by 54%.

Exchanges between the two parties witnessed a significant decline in 2020 due to the Corona epidemic and the global closure, as Gulf exports to the United Kingdom declined by 44%, while British exports also declined by 16.3%.

Five products top the list of goods imported by the Gulf countries from Britain, led by: power generation engines (4 billion dollars), then jewelry (1.5 billion dollars), then cars (1.2 billion dollars), then medicines and pharmaceutical products (730 million dollars). And finally, transportation equipment ($600 million).

As for the products that top Gulf exports to Britain, in the first place we find oil derivatives (5.5 billion dollars), then medium power generators (2.2 billion dollars), then gas (1.3 billion dollars).

With regard to services that include financial services, tourism and cultural exchange, the United Kingdom has exported about 14 billion dollars to the Gulf countries, and imported 6.1 billion dollars worth of services from the Gulf region.

top three

3 Gulf countries are at the fore in trade exchanges with the United Kingdom compared to the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and this is related to the State of Qatar, the Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia:

Diameter

The State of Qatar is one of the largest non-European investors in Britain. Direct Qatari investments in the United Kingdom amounted to about 43 billion dollars.

Britain is one of the first major destinations for Qatari investments.

The volume of trade exchange between the United Kingdom and the State of Qatar amounts to 5.8 billion dollars, of which 3.2 billion were imported by Qatar from the United Kingdom, while Qatar exported a total of 2.6 billion.

UAE

The UAE is Britain's first trading partner among the Gulf Cooperation Council states. The volume of trade exchange between the two countries has reached $16 billion. The UAE imported a total of $10 billion from Britain, while the latter imported a total of $6 billion.

The UAE is the 24th trading partner of Britain in the ranking of the trading partners of the United Kingdom, because the trade exchanges between the two parties constitute 1% of the total trade exchanges of the United Kingdom.

The volume of British investments in the UAE amounted to about 9 billion dollars during the year 2020, in contrast, the UAE's investments in the United Kingdom amounted to 14.9 billion dollars during the same year.

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the second country among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries in terms of the volume of trade exchanges, with a value of more than 13 billion dollars, of which 10.6 billion dollars are for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's imports from the United Kingdom, in return the latter imported a total of 2.8 billion dollars.

Saudi Arabia occupies the 27th place in the ladder of trading partners of the United Kingdom, and the volume of exchange between the two parties constitutes 0.9% of the total global trade exchanges of the United Kingdom.

In 2020, British investments in Saudi Arabia amounted to $6.7 billion, in contrast, Saudi Arabia invested $1.2 billion in Britain, and the two countries had previously signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2018, so that trade exchanges and mutual investments amounted to about $79 billion.

According to estimates by the British Department of Foreign Trade, the trade demand for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries will reach $270 billion by 2035. According to the same source, Britain could increase its share of exports to these countries by 6% compared to what it was exporting in 2020. , an increase of up to 30 billion dollars.