Kingdom must be on top of Britain’s trade partners’ list
Saudi financial power leads region
Continued from Page 4
But he said Britain remains a major partner of France and an European country. It remains a great player for the European Union and for the rest of the world. He said even before Brexit there were differences between Britain and the EU bloc. Britain was also not part of the Schengen visa regime and was not part of the single EU currency — euro, he pointed out.
He said he was not pessimistic, but what France wants is that Britain’s exit should be as soon as possible.
The French diplomat said he was unable to say about the impact until the negotiations reach conclusion.
He said Britain should trigger Article 50 to start negotiations as soon as possible.
To a question by the Arab News editor in chief regarding speculations about the future of Europe after Brexit, the French consul general said that Brexit made the entire Europe realize there was need for reforms and we have started working on this in coordination with our Italian and German partners.
Italian Consul General Elisabetta Martini echoed Al-Harthi’s remarks that Brexit was a democratic process and had to be respected.
She said she believed there were no winners or losers in the process.
Martini said Brexit did not come out of the blue as it was an issue that evolved gradually during the past 30 years.
She said unemployment and immigration were some the important issues that had contributed to Brexit. And that needs to be addressed. In the wake of Brexit, Italy started an exercise called the founding members’ meeting where all the founding members of the EU will discuss how to kick-start a new momentum to realize the European project that “we all believe in,” she said.
“We are still one of the major partners of UK and we think that UK is an European country,” she said. She said the timeline has to be clear for the negotiations, as uncertainty will lead to volatility in the market.
To a question that the state of Italian economy was facing debt crisis-about $400 billion debt and most of Italian banks in bad debt — and how will the Italian government cope with the situation after Brexit, Martini said there was no systematic problem of Italian banks, there were individual problems of some banks and these problems did not arise out of Brexit those were there even before Brexit. These problems are being addressed, she said.
Speaking at the Business Dialogue, Sami A. Al-Nwaisir, chairman, Al-Sami Holding Group, said: “I believe the GCC and mainly Saudi Arabia should be on top of the list of the UK’s strategic partners. The annual bilateral trade exceeds 22 billion pounds favoring Britain.”
He added: “Saudi trade and investment minister visited the UK recently, which is a goodwill gesture and I hope it will be cemented with substantial efforts to address the investors’ needs and political concerns we have.”
Al-Nwaisir said: “In fact, as a strategic partner with the UK, Saudi Arabia leads the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. The Kingdom’s financial power tops in the region with more than $3 trillion investment.”