UK's Flagship Investment Summit Suffers Bumpy Build-up
Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published October 12, 2024 | 06:30 PM
London, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Oct, 2024) The UK government hosts international business leaders on Monday to try and secure much-needed investment for Britain but the build-up has been chaotic with a major firm reportedly threatening to shelve a project.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the leader of the new Labour government, hopes the International Investment Summit in London will show the UK is "the best place in the world to do business".
Starmer has been in power for just three months after securing a thumping majority in the general election.
But he is already on the back foot, with a YouGov poll showing only 18 percent of Britons approve of his government's record to date.
Labour sees Monday's event as an opportunity to demonstrate its pro-business agenda and to stabilise the economy after 14 years of chaotic Conservative rule and Britain's departure from the European Union.
Starmer is expected to announce billions of Pounds in investments.
He has already unveiled £24 billion pounds ($31.4 billion) in green energy projects, including £12 billion by Spanish giant Iberdrola and £8.0 billion by Danish firm Orsted.
But his attempts to woo investors suffered a blow when an expected announcement by P&O Ferries of a £1.0-billion port expansion was reported by UK media to be under threat.
This came after transport minister Louise Haigh and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner issued a joint press release calling P&O's employment practices "unscrupulous" and "exploitative".
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the chairman of P&O owner DP World, then threatened not to attend the investment summit.
Last-ditch talks with the UK government ensued and the Times reported on Saturday that bin Sulayem would take part after all and an announcement about the P&O investment was still expected.
- 'Out-of-office' -
Starmer has placed great importance on the summit and will open the event in conversation with Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google.
Yet he has struggled to attract the top Names.
While around 200 private sector executives are expected to attend, many multinational bosses and tech-titans have decided to give it a miss.
Even the opportunity to meet King Charles III at the closing reception, planned for Monday evening, failed to convince them.
In a critical article on Friday, the Financial Times partly attributed the summit's poor turnout to concerns over its "quality and organisation".
Five days before the event, the start time and venue had still not been confirmed.
Two foreign companies seeking urgent information were reportedly astonished to receive an "out-of-office" message from the organisers, added the FT.
Then the highly secret guest list was revealed by mistake, when the organisers sent an email to all confirmed participants without hiding their addresses.
"This was caused by an administrative human error and we apologise to those affected," a spokesperson for the business ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.
The timing the summit -- which meets the government's promise to organise the event before its 100th day in office -- has also caused unease.
It falls two weeks before the first Labour budget, when businesses are steeling themselves for a possible rise in capital gains tax.
"Taxing shareholders more on gains... is hardly likely to incentivise stock market participation," Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told AFP.
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