Visiting Abu Dhabi in late May to sign an agreement with the UAE on collaboration on nuclear energy, Britain’s Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Lord (Digby) Jones of Birmingham, found time to address a lunchtime meeting of the British Business Group. During a wide-ranging talk, he focussed,
amongst other things, on two particular aspects – the way in which British industry continues to be a world-leader in terms of value-added and innovative technology and the way in which Abu Dhabi is gearing itself up to be a leader in the years ahead. There was, he said, scope for partnership between both sides. Extracts of his speech follow.

“We are very privileged because we are living through a fundamental and unique shift in global power and global engagement,” the Minister said, adding that “ all the shifts in power in the past globally have come as a consequence of war, or have at least involved war as part of the process. But this time, global power isn’t going to be about guns and bombs. It’s going to have a different currency. You see,the day of American omnipotence is over. Her hegemony is at an end.

That means that the United States will have to get used to the idea of having other countries at the global top table, like China, India and the European Union... The currency of power in the 21st Century is going to be oil and water and about the creation and responsible use of energy so that we look after this, the only planet we’ve got. And it’s going to be about the development, transfer, exploitation of knowledge. Those will be the currencies which will define things in a totally different world.”

Britain, he said, is well-placed to play a part, “to help, to partner and to enjoy the fruits and deal with the challenges that a changing world gives.”

“Britain is made for globalisation. We do it really well. If you look at the three pillars of it, goods and services, capital flow, and the greatest migration of people the world has ever seen, Britain deals with that brilliantly.”

“People say we don’t make things anymore. That’s rubbish. What we do is that we only make the stuff that adds value – brand, innovation, quality. What we don’t do is make products that sell only on price… And yet last year, the United Kingdom made and sold more cars around the world in one year, 1.8 million of them, more than we’ve ever done before in our history. The most productive car plant in the whole of Europe, the second most productive car plant on the entire planet, is Nissan’s plant in Sunderland. They researched it in Britain, developed it Britain, took it to market in Britain, built it in Britain and it goes around the world…

In early March, I visited Saudi Arabia and was picked up by the ambassador in Riyadh in a Jaguar made in Birmingham. My security was in a Range Rover made in Birmingham. Down the road, there was a JCB, digging up the road, and made in Staffordshire. At the traffic light and a Bentley comes the other way, made in Crewe. A Mini goes straight across the traffic lights, made in Oxford. An Aston Martin overtook us, made in Gateshead. That is the British motor industry. Quality, brand, valueadded, innovation.”

In a reference to next year’s Abu Dhabi Formula One grand prix, the Minister pointed out that around 80 per cent of the racing cars that will be on display were made in Britain. “All of those, all that high class automotive engineering, happens in Britain.”

He said that a similar tale could be told of aviation, with half of every Airbus being made in Britain, including the Rolls-Royce engines. In other sectors, he noted, Britain was also a world leader.

“Four of the top ten universities in the world are British - Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, London, and University College, London. The other six are American. There’s not another European university in the top twenty-five, though there are three more British ones.

Look at financial services. Britain is the capital of the world. If you want to raise money, borrow money, insure your risk, or get advice, you come to London. New York is second, and if she wants her crown back, let her fight for it. The only thing that will come from that competition is a better deal for the customer around the world and there’s nothing wrong with that. And whether it’s Shanghai or Mumbai or Dubai, whether it is Qatar or Abu Dhabi, whether it’s Frankfurt or Paris or New York, if they
want it done, want it done properly with the rule of law, they come to London.

I pledge today that the UK government will work with Abu Dhabi as she develops her financial services industry and her regulating environment on those principles. We would love to work with Abu Dhabi and to partner it along the way as Abu Dhabi moves to develop its non-oil-and-gas sector.

So, whether it’s service industries, whether it’s manufacturing, whether it’s education, whether it’s providing technological solutions for climate change – these are what are driving the global economy in the 21st Century.

And if there’s one part of the world that matters more than ever before, it’s here in the Gulf. If you drew a map of the hinge of economic activity 35 years ago around the world, you probably draw it somewhere down the middle of the Atlantic. If you drew it 10 years ago, you’d probably draw it somewhere down through Eastern Europe and down the Danube. Today, that hinge of the world’s economy comes through Abu Dhabi.

The nineteenth century belonged to Britain. The 20th century belonged to America. The 21st century belongs to Asia and a lot will depend on how the Gulf turns that to its advantage.

I feel that Britain has been missing a bit of a trick and I think that we’ve got to sharpen up our act, stop being complacent, and really make a big public statement, again and again and again, about how important Abu Dhabi is. You see, we’re friends, we’re family…

I will put all my energy at UKTI into making this relationship really, really work, because Abu Dhabi is vital for the preservation and development of the values that are going to make the 21st centurysuccessful. I’m thrilled, for instance, that this morning I signed a memorandum of understanding on Britain and Abu Dhabi working together in her development of peaceful nuclear energy, even though, if it wanted, it could just rely on what’s under the ground for the next hundred years.

Instead, Abu Dhabi is standing saying no: we want to be at that top table of power in the 21st century and we are prepared to accept the responsibilities that go with that. We’re prepared to enjoy the power that comes with it, but we will stand up and take responsibility. And that means diversifying the economy, in ways such as financial services and renewable energy, getting into tourism and creative industries. It also means being a template, an exemplar, a wonderful leader in the world for sharing how you can develop nuclear power in a safe and peaceful way. And if a leading nation from the Middle East stands up and shows the world that can be done, you just imagine what a wonderful example to the doomsayers that will be.

The important thing is that this puts Abu Dhabi at the top table for power in the 21st Century. I want Britain to be the UAE’s best friend, and I want to stand up and tell the world that you are.

I believe hugely in the power of business to give kids, especially young men, clean water, better health care, better education, a road just to ensure that they have some skill in the future and they feel they matter, that they feel they can work at globalisation and not see it as a big threat. Because if we do that, they will not feel the need for the same kind of aggression to solve their problems and they will not be prey to the evil men of all religions and all times who dip into the reservoir of insecurity that comes about with fundamental change that we’re experiencing. And business can do that. We can actually really make a difference in people’s lives.”