Global Arab Network | Middle East Association Lunch underlines UK support for MENA region

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Middle East Association Lunch underlines UK support for MENA region

Global Arab Network - The Middle East Association

Thursday, 10 November 2011 19:57

Pic, left to right: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG, LVO, Business Development Director, BAE Systems; Michael Hodges, Chairman, Middle East Association; The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear; Charles Hollis, Director General, Middle East Association; Ray Webb, Managing Director, Deutsche Forfait AG, London; Sheriff Wendy Mead.

Global Arab Network - Around 130 senior financial and business representatives attended the Middle East Association’s Lunch held at the Mansion House in the City of London on Tuesday 5th November in the presence of The Rt Hon. The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear, Global Arab Network reports

Following the Toasts proposed by Charles Hollis, Director General of the Middle East Association, The Lord Mayor addressed the gathering. He commented that the Middle East Association’s fifty years of promoting trade and relations with the Middle East and North Africa “chime well with the City of London’s priorities.” He highlighted the City of London’s strong role throughout the world and its support for the UK government’s focus on elevating trade relations with the Gulf. “The scale of opportunities for the UK in all the Gulf states is clear to see,” he said.

Speaking of his recent visits to the Gulf states and Egypt to promote UK partnerships with the region, he highlighted City of London expertise in areas including Islamic finance, support for infrastructure development and asset management. He also spoke of the challenges for the City of London in helping Egypt to achieve its potential and noted that Prime Minister David Cameron had been the first western leader to visit the country after the change of government.

Ray Webb, Managing Director DF Deutsche Forfait AG London, outlined the activities of DF Deutsche Forfait AG, a Cologne-based independent company specialising in the finance of international trade, whose UK operation was set up in 2007. He highlighted the importance of exports to the British economy and the role of DF Deutsche Forfait AG in assisting British companies with their exports to the Middle East, which accounts for a significant part of the company’s business. The region offers challenges for UK business at the current time but also opportunities, he said.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG, LVO, Business Development Director at BAE Systems, thanked the Lord Mayor for all his efforts in promoting British financial services and business worldwide. The so-called Arab spring is the beginning of a “long and difficult process of change,” he said. He underlined the urgent need for jobs, education and accountable government in the Arab world, urging those present to support the region with education, finance, goods and capacity building. He congratulated the UK government on its role in supporting change in the Arab world, addressed the decline of American influence in the region and stressed the need to solve the Palestine issue “in the interests of Israel, the west and the Middle East.”

Global Arab Network

Pic: left to right: Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG, LVO, Business Development Director, BAE Systems; Michael Hodges, Chairman, Middle East Association; The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear; Charles Hollis, Director General, Middle East Association; Ray Webb, Managing Director, Deutsche Forfait AG, London; Sheriff Wendy Mead.

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