The Lord Mayor of the City of London William Russell said that his country supports Qatar’s aspirations to become a financial technology hub in the region, praising the new legislations related to financial technology and the establishment of a regional financial centre, QNA reported.
The Lord Mayor of the City of London said at a press conference during his visit to Doha, that Qatar’s investments in Britain exceeded £40bn, while the Qatar Investment Authority is one of the few sovereign funds that invested more than £5bn in the United Kingdom after the Brexit, expressing UK’s gratitude for the support and friendship it has with the State of Qatar, and its desire for more cooperation in the field of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Lord Mayor Russell pointed out that about 30 British companies are visiting Doha to discuss opportunities in various disciplines related to the World Cup, such as security training, crowd management, consulting, digital services, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Currently, there are more than 700 British companies operating in the Qatari market in various sectors, and we look forward to raising this number to about a thousand British companies, he said.
He added that the two countries share development interests and economic goals, as the State of Qatar seeks to make electric cars in the state electric cars approximately 20 percent of all cars by 2025, while UK is committed to ensuring that all cars in Britain are electric by 2035, stressing the importance of this achievement in light of the increasing concerns about climate change.
On the state of the British economy after Brexit, he mentioned the importance of the financial services sector in Britain, which employs 2.3 million people, pointing to the presence of two strong sectors in the city of London, namely financial technology and the green economy.
Lord Russell said that his country will sign free trade agreements with a number of countries, noting that the financial technology sector in London always comes at the forefront of the financial services sector, and London remains a center for financial services in Europe and has the largest number of financial institutions compared to any other European city. He added that despite the current challenges and the resulting loss of two thousand jobs in the country, the infrastructure that the Kingdom possesses will help it to keep its place as the best financial center in the world.
