Jan 7, 2022

BEI Weekly Update — 7th January 2022

Dear Members and Friends,

I wanted to begin by wishing you a very Happy New Year. I hope, as I am sure you all do, that we see a gradual return to more normal life after the last two years of disruption. As we head into the New Year, we have an exciting programme already in place. We look forward to interacting with as many of you as possible in the early part of the year to get a sense of your goals and aspirations for the year ahead and discuss with you the activities and events we can schedule that will help you meet your goals.

We start our 2022 programme next week. Although the majority of our events are ‘virtual’ and therefore unaffected by the ‘Plan B’ guidance, we felt it prudent to delay our planned lunch with Louis Taylor, the CEO of UK Export Finance. Financing and funding are themes that are important to all our members, and ones we will focus upon throughout the year with a series of events and engagements.

Details full of the events for the early part of the year are already available here. I wanted to draw your attention to the following events taking place in January:

On Thursday 13th January: we are hosting a presentation by DevelopmentAid on their ‘Smart Project Acquisition Tool’ — Tenderwell. The platform is designed to support BD project acquisition tracking and management of data on project opportunities efficiently and helps to increase win rate at tendering.

On Wednesday 19th January: we are delighted to welcome Darren Welch, the FCDO Director of Global Health, for a webinar as he shares insights on FCDO’s global health priorities and focus in the face of many global challenges. It may also be of interest for members to read the FCDO Position Paper published in December 2021 on Global Health Systems Strengthening ahead of the event.

On Thursday 20th January: we are hosting an in-depth discussion with the Department for International Trade Mexico Team, which will provide BEI members with a download on the latest climate-related opportunities, with a brief political and economic update, and the opportunity for a Q&A session.

On Wednesday 26th January: we will resume our Deep Dive series with with Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Armenia, HE John Gallagher, who was appointed to the position in March 2021. The Ambassador will be joined on the panel by his Embassy team, providing a socio-political update on the market, an overview of doing business in Armenia.

On Wednesday 26th January: we will be joined for an FCDO presentation on the Clean Green Initiative launched by the UK at COP26. Directors for Economic Cooperation & Growth at FCDO Caroline Read & Nicola Webb, will share detailed insights on how developing countries can leverage green technology and grow their economies sustainably.

And finally, join us on Thursday 27th January: for a webinar on “Doing Business with the EBRD” focusing on how to navigate the procurement processes and procedures as well as their project pipeline priorities around sustainable infrastructure.

To register for any of these events, and see the most up to date schedule, visit our website here

I am very hopeful and optimistic about the outlook for 2022, and look forward to connecting with you all again in the very near future. Can I also remind you to join us on LinkedIn where many of our events and activities are posted.

With Best Wishes
Derrick

Derrick Sanyahumbi
Chief Executive Officer
British Expertise International

–

Don’t forget…

See our full events programme here, and to enquire about becoming a member of BEI, register your interest here.

Join our Working Groups — as part of our member focus, the working groups offer opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement, learning & sharing, profiling expertise & capabilities and highlighting thought leadership. Groups include Climate Change, Education, infrastructure, D&I, and we also support a Safeguarding Leads Network. For details contact Joe McLynn

Join our LinkedIn Group and keep up with our news and our upcoming events highlights. Members can also post and share latest news and thought leadership. Join the group here.

Recruitment Board
Take advantage of the new Job Board on our website to post your organisation’s vacancies, currently this facility is available for free.

–

Upcoming Events

Currently most of our events are hosted virtually and we are starting to explore face to face and hybrid event options as the government eases socialising restrictions. For any event registration support please contact the events team. Click on titles to access full event details. The full calendar of events can be viewed here and recently added event dates are highlighted with an asterisk*.

13th January* — Development Aid Project Opportunities Platform

19th January* — The FCDO & Global Health Priorities

20th January — Resilient Cities & Infrastructure: The Mexico Series

26th January — Armenia Deep Dive

26th January — FCDO — Clean Green Initiative

27th January — Doing Business & Opportunities with the EBRD

8th February — Meet the Trade Envoy for Mongolia Daniel Kawczynski MP

9th February — The Business Case for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

10th February — Lunch with Louis Taylor, CEO of UK Export Finance

22nd February — Roundtable with Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to South Africa — Andrew Selous MP

23rd February — Opportunities for UK Companies in Nigeria

23rd March — Meet the Trade Commissioner for South Asia, Alan Gemmell

–

External News & Events

21st — 25th February — The UK-SG Innovation Partnership Series — Smart Cities, Green Tech, and Circular Economy- DIT in collaboration with the UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN) and Tech Nation, welcomes innovative UK tech companies in smart cities, green tech, and the circular economy to participate in a virtual trade mission to Singapore commencing 21 February 2022. Apply to participate here.

22nd –24th February — The Department of International Trade is taking a Smart Cities mission to Malaysia. If you would like to attend, please register here.

25th — 29th April — Spatial analysis in QGIS and R — An Introduction for Environmental Scientists. Running over four half-day sessions, this hands-on and interactive online course will give you an introduction to spatial data analysis in an open-source environment. The course will focus on the use of QGIS and R as well as providing a theoretical background to working with spatial data and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). For more information click here and to sign up and pay online click here.