The UK Minister of State for Industry, Sarah Jones, revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat a plan to enhance cooperation with Saudi Arabia in clean energy industries and advanced manufacturing. She announced plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kingdom to support the UK's new Industrial Strategy.
Jones is leading a delegation of 16 companies taking part in The Future Minerals Forum (FMF), a two-day international mining conference held in Riyadh.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, on the sidelines of the Fourth Annual International Ministerial Meeting on Mining, held in conjunction with the conference, Jones described the conference as the most significant critical minerals event in the Middle East and North Africa, emphasizing its importance as an opportunity to boost UK-Saudi ties, following Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit last December.
Below is the full text of the interview:
Why are you attending the Future Minerals Forum at KSA?
Not only is the Future Minerals Forum the most significant critical minerals event in the Middle East and North Africa region, I see it as a valuable opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Saudi Arabia following Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s visit in December.
I’ll be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabia to boost collaboration between our nations as we recognise the importance of critical minerals for our national security, benefitting economic growth which is our number one priority in government.
I’m also meeting Saudi businesses, international companies and a range of stakeholders, to highlight that the UK is a truly global economy. We’re open for business and determined to deliver investment into infrastructure and our supply chains to achieve the economic growth we need in every part of the UK.
What are you hoping to achieve from this visit?
Through signing this partnership with Saudi Arabia, we’re supporting the work the UK is doing with our new Industrial Strategy. As part of this 10-year plan, we have identified eight high-growth sectors, including clean energy industries and advanced manufacturing, to prioritise in growing the economy. We are proudly outward-looking and internationalist, and this Strategy will deliver the long-term stability and certainty businesses and investors need to show the UK is a mature trading partner.
We can boost growth further by increasing domestic production through mining, midstream processing and through recycling critical minerals, building on world-leading innovation and technical expertise in our chemicals and metals sectors.
As the Minister for Industry, I’m promoting these opportunities to major mining companies from the UK and Saudi Arabia, exploring the areas for collaboration throughout the supply chain.
What are the opportunities for the UK and Saudi working together on critical minerals?
Critical minerals are essential for a wide range of everyday items from cars to smartphones, and by 2040, the UK will need four times as many of them as we do today.
That’s why I’m leading a trade mission of 16 UK companies to showcase their expertise on the world stage here in Riyadh, where they will meet partners and potentially new customers from around the globe.
With Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plans for critical minerals under Vision 2030, and the UK’s new Critical Minerals Strategy coming later this year, we can forge closer ties and support each other’s ambitions with investment in lithium, tin and tungsten mining in the UK, as well as in the midstream processing for rare earths.
There are several other opportunities for the UK and Saudi to work together to secure our supply chains, including through our Centres of Excellence, joint critical minerals projects, and with investment into the critical minerals supply chain.
What does the MoU signing mean for the UK-KSA economic relationship and for the wider UK-Gulf relationship?
Through signing this agreement with Saudi Arabia, we’re showing our strong intent to deepen our collaboration on critical minerals. Even with increased domestic production, the UK will still rely on imports of critical minerals. That’s why it's vital that by developing our UK-Saudi economic relationship, we will meet our needs and help diversify our critical mineral supply chains.
The Memorandum of Understanding will provide us a framework for deepening cooperation, and we look forward to working with Saudi Arabia to develop this into new collaborative projects.
What will the new Critical Minerals Strategy focus on and what do you hope it will achieve?
Our new Critical Minerals Strategy will be released this year and will be more ambitious, more targeted and more international than previous strategies.
To drive growth and investment into our most important sectors, we need to ensure resilience for critical minerals by maximising domestic production through mining, refining, and recycling – and that means working together with countries like Saudi Arabia to maximise the opportunities in securing the supply chain.
Through building on the already established partnerships like Saudi Arabia, and new relationships with other partners, we're ensuring that we’re supporting the industries of tomorrow, delivering for businesses and creating new jobs across the UK.
What about the coming Great Future for the two nations?
The GREAT FUTURES launch event in May was a huge success in so far as it supported multiple partnerships between UK and Saudi businesses on projects that are now delivering tangible results for both our Kingdoms. The UK led a delegation of 450 businesses, the largest UK trade mission in a decade, and the largest ever from the UK to The Kingdom. This resulted in more than 50 MoU’s and agreements signed across various priority sectors, with Ministers from both countries agreeing to grow total trade from £17bn in 2022 to £30bn by 2030.
We’re now capitalising on that success with a 12-month program of events that will provide more opportunities for UK-Saudi collaboration across priority sectors such as trade, investment, tourism, education and cultural engagement, all in support of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. In addition to these programs, we aim to deliver a one year on summit in London this summer to mark one year since the campaign began. This landmark event will once again convene UK and Saudi senior government and business decision-makers to develop further partnerships between our two countries, while reaffirming and strengthening our bilateral relationship.
