Firstly, may I welcome back all our members and other readers? I hope that you all had a good Christmas and New Year break and I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year, in both the Gregorian and Hijri calendars, of course!

As this issue is coming out around the time of the World Future Energy Summit, I thought I would summarise some of the activities in which the UK has been involved concerning renewable and alternative energy sources.

One of the world’s largest wind farms - planned to be built off the British coast in the River Thames estuary – is now being backed financially by the Abu Dhabi government. The London Array renewables energy project will cost 2.5 billion pounds and a 20 per cent stake has been taken by the Masdar Initiative, based, as we all know, in Abu Dhabi. This marine wind farm will have about 200-300 gigantic turbines, generating power by the strong winds blowing off the sea and will be capable of producing enough electricity to power a quarter of London’s homes. If it goes ahead, construction could start in 2010 with the first power being generated as early as 2011-2012.

Masdar has also, of course, announced plans worth billions of dirhams in new energy investments, including Masdar City, the world’s first carbon-neutral city, designed by the UK’s Sir Norman Foster. During the Prime Minister’s visit in November, an agreement was signed between the two countries pledging cooperation in the sector, as reported elsewhere in this issue. Dr Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, said ‘ this collaboration with the UK is very much in line with our leadership’s vision of cooperating with other Governments and organisations from around the world. Today’s agreement heralds a new era of cooperation with the UK Government in renewable energy and sustainable technology investment and knowledge transfer that will benefit both our economies and drive the future growth of the renewable energy sector globally’’. It is a significant step forward in our relationship with Abu Dhabi.

In addition Masdar have established partnerships with the likes of Rolls Royce, Imperial College, BP, and Shell in pursuit of their exciting vision. The World Future Energy Summit provides another chance for a number of UK companies to exhibit and display their technologies to Masdar and the wider world stage. These are, indeed, exciting times in the renewables sector.

In November, a Masdar roadshow, supported by UKTI, was held in London to present the Masdar vision. This included a series of one-to-one clinics for interested UK companies. The event was a complete sell-out and we are following up on a number of initiatives with UK companies and Masdar.

As I mentioned above, the British Prime Minister, my namesake, Gordon Brown, visited the UAE in November. The visit was an outstanding success, even if my grey hairs increased substantially. He was accompanied by two other Cabinet Ministers, Lord Mandelson and Ed Miliband, and the party also consisted of around 30 senior CEOs from the UK. It was the biggest joint government and business delegation from Britain to any country, anywhere, in living memory. The programme, as many will know, included calls on HH the President and the Minister of Foreign Trade, the Prime Minister’s speech at ADIPEC and a reception in the new Mubadala building, followed by a dinner at the Emirates Palace, and the arrangements and hospitality from the UAE side were, of course, excellent. There has already been much positive feedback from the visit and we hope for some further positive results in the months ahead.

2009 looks set to be another good year for the development of UAE-UK relations.