RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom are solidifying their partnership through expanded collaborations in key sectors, including finance, trade, tourism and innovation.
The strategic alignment reflects both countries’ shared aspirations for economic growth and diversification, with Saudi Arabia leveraging its Vision 2030 initiative and the UK seeking stronger ties in the Gulf region.
Recent high-level discussions underscore a mutual commitment to bolstering bilateral trade, setting ambitious targets, and fostering cross-industry synergies.
Lucy Frazer, Former UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport
These efforts are underpinned by cultural exchanges, increased tourism flows, and cooperative initiatives in emerging sectors such as clean technology and heritage preservation.
According to data from the UK government’s Department for Business and Trade, total trade in goods and services with Saudi Arabia reached £17.6 billion ($22.4 billion) in the year ending March 2024.
During a top ministerial meeting in Riyadh in September between Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Commerce Majid Al-Qasabi and the UK’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds, officials discussed a target to increase bilateral trade to £30 billion ($39.6 billion) by 2030.
We’ve always had a very strong relationship, but that relationship is getting closer as Saudi Arabia undergoes this huge societal and economic change.
Lucy Frazer, Former UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport
After the meeting, Al-Qasabi noted the implementation of 79 initiatives in 13 economic sectors to strengthen Saudi-British relations that have led to more than 30 percent growth between 2018 and 2023.
“Economic growth is this government’s driving mission, and boosting trade and investment with some of the world’s biggest economies is crucial to that,” Reynolds said in a statement.
The Kingdom was the UK’s 23rd largest trading partner in the four quarters to the end of the year’s first quarter, accounting for 1 percent of total UK trade.
Chairwoman of the Saudi British Joint Business Council Jennie Gubbins spoke to Arab News in November 2023 and said that bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and the UK had increased 68 percent in the previous year.
She said at the time: “This is just a really exciting time. The relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UK, I think, is better than I’ve ever seen it, and I’ve been working between the UK and the Middle East for a long time.
“People who don’t know what’s going on in Saudi Arabia think maybe it’s oil stuff. but it’s all about … a huge growth in the technology (sector). Things like clean tech, fintech, healthtech, huge interest in all of those things,” Gubbins said.
She also said that the council uses Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 as a “blueprint” to direct them toward the areas to focus on with continual growth.
Gubbins highlighted that Saudi mega-project NEOM opening its first international office in London is not surprising considering that Britons are the second-largest group of expatriates working at NEOM.
During a November event at the British Embassy, Neil Crompton, the ambassador to Saudi Arabia, pointed out that the partnership between the two countries has expanded from traditional defense partnerships to include variable sectors such as tourism, people-to-people relations, and sports, especially since Vision 2030 was announced.
The tourism sector is an area of promising growth, with more British sports personalities, such as the cricketer Kevin Pietersen, visiting Saudi Arabia and many Saudis regularly traveling to London for holidays.
“I think the affection between the two countries is amazing,” Crompton said. “Since we introduced the visa waiver system in June 2022, over 500,000 Saudis have used it to go to London, in addition to the 100,000 who already had a 10-year visa or another passport.”
At the Great Futures Conference in May, the Saudi Tourism Authority and VisitBritain, the UK’s national tourism agency, signed a declaration of intent to develop and grow tourism.
VisitBritain has predicted there will be 240,000 visitors to the UK from Saudi Arabia this year, a 9 percent increase from 2019.
At the event, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb said that the Kingdom had welcomed more than 165,600 British tourists and issued 560,462 e-visas for British visitors since 2019.
The former UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport Lucy Frazer told Arab News: “We’ve always had a very strong relationship, but that relationship is getting closer as Saudi Arabia undergoes this huge societal and economic change.”
She added: “It’s so dynamic and it’s got so many ambitions for the future. And in the UK, we would like to be a strong partner in that. So we’re collaborating in a number of areas sharing knowledge, sharing expertise, sharing best practice.”
A heritage agreement between Historic England and the Saudi Ministry of Culture was also discussed to encourage joint training and sharing expertise in terms of the restoration of palaces and historic buildings.
