The BBG’s Female Trade Mission to Riyadh

From the packed return flight, I know that DXB to RUH is a well-trodden path for many in the UAE. But I hope this summary is useful for those that have yet to visit Riyadh to encourage you to go!

Katy Holmes General Manager British Business Group Dubai and Northern Emirates

The BBG has held a number of large business briefings over the last two years focused on ‘doing business in Saudi Arabia’, all of which have attracted a crowd of over 100 decision-makers based in Dubai, looking to explore the region. Having witnessed the enthusiasm of many of our members to explore the region and aware of many that are now established there or commuting each week, I felt that joining this trade mission organised by CBD Corporate Services and in collaboration with British Chamber of Commerce Abu Dhabi was a fantastic opportunity to visit Riyadh myself and make useful on the ground connections that I might then share with our members in Dubai.

On a personal note, this was the first time I had travelled for business for about 12 years and I had some reservations about how welcoming and how easy it would be for a female business traveller to get around Riyadh. Almost immediately, I felt confident and comfortable enough to take taxis on my own and go from one venue to the next, and whilst the airport experience was quite far from what we have to come to expect at DXB, it was a pretty straightforward process to go from Dubai to Riyadh and back.

This inaugural trade mission to Riyadh was an initiative of BBG Deputy Chair Helen Barrett as part of her focus on GCC connectivity for the BBG. Helen is also a Partner at BBG Member CBD Corporate Services and her team project managed the trade mission with the support of the BBG Dubai and Northern Emirates and the British Chamber of Commerce Abu Dhabi in close collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade (previously

Department for International Trade). It was an unknown as to who would be attracted to join this first exploration to Saudi and quite organically the mission attracted female founders, communication specialists, lawyers and representatives of chartered institutes – a total of 20 women.

Questions around appropriate dress code and safety were the two most frequently asked questions from the delegates ahead of the trade mission. Out of respect and acknowledging that we were part of a Department for Business and Trade supported trade mission, the majority of our delegation chose to wear an abaya however, at the external events that I attended outside of the trade mission it wasn’t on reflection essential. Whilst I have nothing to compare it to other than eleven years of living in Dubai, I was quite surprised to see so many expats not wearing abayas. Ahead of the trade mission, Helen and I arrived a day early to attend an event to support BBG Member Emma

Burdett of WILD who launched her female network for Riyadh in the same week. Over 100 women, many Saudi women were in attendance and there was great energy in the room. We also met with a few ex-Dubai residents who are having a very positive experience of living in Saudi.

Day one of the trade mission programme started with an interactive orientation of Saudi with panelists Lizzie Daniell of AEI Saudi; Lana Dajani of Department for Business and Trade in Riyadh; Marina Krasnobrizhaya (first female General Manager) at The St. Regis Riyadh; Mona Althagafi Country Director at Serco and Nada Almarhoon MD of Elite Recruitment Group moderated by Helen Barrett covering living and working in Saudi as a National and as an expat. This was a really useful session for the trade mission and my main takeaway from the discussion was that whilst seeing women in the workplace is still relatively new compared to the rest of the world, where Saudi women are now at an advantage is that they are ‘leap frogging’ many of the obstacles that women elsewhere may have struggled with through the years. For example, Saudi working mothers are supported financially – with access and financial provision for childcare - and provided with transport to return to work. There are also harsh anti-harassment laws protecting women from inappropriate comments or behaviours in the workplace. I am sure these initiatives and the governance will be key to why there is a 37% Saudi women participation in the workforce already against the Saudi Vision 2030 target of 30% by 2030!

In the afternoon we visited the Ministry of Investment (MISA) and were welcomed with great enthusiasm. We were taken through a very impressive investors’ presentation with the opportunity to ask questions on set up, licensing, hiring and government assistance. We met with the “attraction team” so it was all very positive as you might expect. Saudi Arabia now allows for full foreign ownership in the majority of its sectors including: education, healthcare, defence, engineering, retail and wholesale. The National Investment Strategy Targets aim is to increase investments in KSA in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, to reach a cumulative total of investments of more than 3.2 trillion USD from 2021 to 2030.

Day one finished with a private function at the British Embassy where we met our peers at The Riyadh Group for British Business (RGBB) and were hosted by Rosie Tapper who is the Vision 2030 and Prosperity Counsellor at the British Embassy Riyadh. In her keynote, Rosie spoke of the important role of sport in the development of the Kingdom.

Day two began at the offices of STAT Law Firm, and our thanks to Yazeed AlToaimi and the wider team for providing us with an overview on business set up steps and the correct channels to follow in conducting business in the Kingdom. Where there are great rewards for setting up in KSA there are also high penalties with a very publicly promoted whistle-blowing campaign to support governance and strict codes of business.

Across all of the presentations, engaging with Uber drivers, in restaurants and speaking to expatseveryone speaks proudly of the paradigm shift for the region since 2016 when the Saudi Vision 2030 was launched. Many of the targets have already been exceeded or are on track. The majority of construction is happening in the GIGA projects and Riyadh’s landscape is very flat in comparison to Dubai. Rumours are that all new cranes for the next four years will be in Saudi to meet the Vision 2030 and the good news is that alongside the construction there is a commitment to planting 10 billion trees, within the Kingdom, as part of the Saudi Green Initiative.

For the final part of the trade mission we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historical At-Turaif, ‘the royal residence and seat of governance of the First Saudi State and one of the most historically significant and architecturally impressive mudbrick settlements in the world, built in the distinctive Najdi style.’ There are restaurants built around the site that would remind you of the Al Seef area of Dubai with brands Hakkasan, Brunch and Cake and soon to open Flamingo Room – so this is clearly designed and expected to be a big tourism hub! In fact, our own cultural tour was somewhat taken over by a huge K Pop boy band who were filming for a travel entertainment show to encourage tourism!

Whilst I really enjoyed the experience and felt so welcome, after a week in heels in Saudi, returning to Dubai was like slipping into a comfortable pair of trainers (!) and the whole experience was a great reminder of the journey that Dubai and the UAE has been on to get to the stage where we are currently number one destination for travel and climbing up the scale of best places to live in the world with a rapidly growing population!

My thanks to CBD Corporate Services for organising the trade mission, the British Embassy in Riyadh for hosting us, AEI Saudi for their on the ground knowledge and logistics support, the BBG Members who attended as delegates and all of the KSA stakeholders that we met on our trip. My LinkedIn went crazy while I was away so I am certain this will be the start of many more DXB to GCC exploration trade missions for members!

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Iyad 15 years old, with his family in the car where they are now living.

Far right - The tent where the family are now living.

Save the Children provides life-changing support to earthquake victims

17.9 million people have been impacted by the earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria on 6th February 2023.

In Syria, 8.8 million, including 3.7 million children were impacted, and recent floods only made things worse for those who lost their home, damaging 12,832 tents and destroying a further 26,005, impacting an estimated 194,185 people.

For almost two months now, families in southern Türkiye and northern Syria have been dealing with the severe impacts of the earthquake.

In northern Syria, many children and their families have lost their homes in the earthquakes and are sleeping outside in freezing cold temperatures. They are in desperate need of food, water, shelter, and warm clothing to protect them against the elements and get through the cold nights ahead.

With many health facilities damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, and those that are still standing overwhelmed with thousands of injured people, they need urgent support to access healthcare. A severe lack of safe water and sanitation facilities is threatening to trigger a secondary health crisis, with children particularly vulnerable to the risk of illness and disease.

We also know that in crises like this, children need support to keep them safe and to help them recover and come to terms with what’s happened. Many will have likely lost family members and friends and will need emotional support to cope. Some children may have also become separated from their families, scared, alone and at increased risk of violence, exploitation and abuse. They need support to be reunited with their families or to access alternative care if needed, and to receive protection support.

Ensuring children return to learning is also essential, not only to protect their right to an education, but also to provide them with a safe haven in the aftermath of a disaster and to restore a sense of normality. Children are incredibly resilient, but they need to find safety and stability in order to start their route to recovery.

The worst affected area in Syria is home to some of the countries’ most vulnerable people. In northern Syria, some 4 million people were already dependent on humanitarian aid, even before the earthquake hit. Many people here have been forced to flee their homes multiple times due to the 12-year conflict and are living in flimsy shelters in informal camps. These shelters can barely protect families from the heavy rain and snow that is currently battering the region, let alone withstand an earthquake. Coupled with a crippling economic crisis, which is ravaging the country, thousands of families were already struggling to feed their children, to keep them warm this winter and to send them to school.

Additional financial commitments are required and should be made now to enable staff, goods, and services to be quickly mobilised in order to avoid secondary crises such as mass hunger and disease and avoid further exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation.

We’re planning to reach 1,600,000 people, including 675,000 children in total through our response1.1m people, including 550,000 children in Syria, and 500,000 people, including 125,000 children in Türkiye.

In Syria, Save the Children is delivering aid through nine local partners, responding in earthquake affected governorates. Save the Children and partners are providing emergency food rations, blankets, tents and warm clothing. They are making sure children and their families can keep clean, healthy and protected from illness and diseases by providing safe drinking water, and essential hygiene and sanitation items. Partners are delivering fuel to two hospitals and to a local bakery which provides 7,500 bags of bread per day and supporting the light rehabilitation of damaged health facilities. So far, we’ve already reached over 139,000 people in total with critical support.

Now Is The Time To Focus On Recovery

Rasha Muhrez says that Syria’s humanitarian crisis did not start with the earthquakes. The situation was already incredibly dire even before the earthquakes struck, with children lacking sufficient water, food, healthcare, education services and increasingly, hope, after more than 12 years of war.

These earthquakes mean that families are more likely to be forced to make impossible decisions for their children, including life-altering compromises on basic education, nutrition and health care, and their children’s protection. And may even take a perilous journey across the Mediterranean. They should not be left to shoulder these challenges alone - they need our support.

For far too long the needs of Syrian children have been neglected. It shouldn’t have taken an earthquake to refocus the international community, but now it is time to shift our approach.

While meeting immediate needs, we need to think about the longer term. Now is the time to focus on recovery. We need to support local organisations and civil society to make meaningful changes in the support that people receive. International funding must be used to rehabilitate schools, make hospitals fit for purpose and ensure that children have safe homes.

Rasha Muhrez

Save the Children Syria Response Director

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in around 120 countries. Our vision is to live in a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

In the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe region we have country offices in Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Türkiye, Ukraine,

Yemen. We are also present in Albania, Kosovo, Tunisia and Poland and have member offices in Jordan, Lithuania and Romania. In the UAE, we have recently established the Gulf Initiative, with the aim of starting partnerships with key development and humanitarian actors in the Gulf region.

Save the Children’s Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe regional office is based in Jordan.