Dec 12, 2025

BEI Weekly Update - 12th December 2025

by

David Landsman

by

Dear Members and Friends,

It was good to see many BEI members – including some of our newest members – and friends last night at our end of year reception. Earlier in the day, our International Development Heads of Business were also able to say a warm thank you and farewell to Bev Jandziol, who from her position as Commercial Director at FCDO has absolutely personified the collaborative approach between Government and our members which we value so much and which makes achieving British objectives in international development an effective team effort. Our warm wishes to her in the next stage of her career.

As we said farewell to Bev, we also heard once again from Nicola McDonald, Deputy Director Commercial at FCDO, who filled us in on some of the challenges the Department is facing in bringing into full effect the new Procurement Act alongside the budget cuts and a series of change programmes. In this context, it’s good to see that the commercial team continues to ensure that the realities of the contracting process are factored into FCDO thinking and that there is a good line of communication between the Department and suppliers. We look forward to working with Nicola and colleagues in 2026 and, no doubt, welcoming Bev’s successor to our group in due course.

Earlier this week, we rounded off our Infrastructure, Climate and Nature programme in 2025 with a roundtable on sustainable finance in the Philippines. We were delighted to welcome senior representatives from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who provided members with an overview of the current ESG landscape and highlighted opportunities for scaling green bonds, voluntary carbon markets and other sustainable finance instruments. Attendees explored how the PSE and SEC collaborate to increase the number of listed companies, encouraging businesses of all sizes to participate, while driving substantial education initiatives to build financial literacy, including among Filipinos living and working abroad. The discussion also touched on the development of the Philippines Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, a critical framework designed to align investment flows with climate and environmental objectives, improve market transparency and support the country’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

We were pleased to see this week that BEI member SUMS Consulting launched a new report, ‘University lands: Mapping risks and opportunities for the higher education sector’, exploring how UK Universities use their estates, having deployed geospatial analysis of public and open-source datasets to map the UK higher education sector for the first time. They also point to how universities’ estates can contribute to environmental sustainability and support their role as central players in regional systems, economies and development. The report is accompanied by a mapping tool which allows users to explore these questions for themselves. You can access the relevant insights and report here.

Next week our final newsletter of the year will provide a chance to review the wide range of activities we have enjoyed with members over the year as well as providing a first look at the programme we are currently preparing for the early months of 2026. We will recap the new year’s programme in early January if you have (entirely understandably) decided to start your holidays now. In any case, best wishes for whatever preparations you have in hand this weekend.

David Landsman

Executive Chairman

British Expertise International

Event recordings and resources:

(Member access only)

2nd December 2025 - Working with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
4th November 2025 - India - Water Resilience
23rd October 2025 - Trade and Investment Opportunities in the British Overseas Territories
18th September 2025 - Infrastructure Opportunities in South Africa
16th September 2025 - Meet UKEF: Asia and the Middle-East

Register for an upcoming event →

External Events and Reports:

13th January 2026 - UK-Asian Development Bank Business Connect: Advancing Partnerships through Infrastructure and Innovation - SAVE THE DATE - This half-day event, taking place in Singapore (venue TBC) is hosted by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank’s Singapore Office, with the aim of deepening UK business engagement with ADB and showcase UK innovation, expertise and available financing solutions across ADB’s priority sectors.