A delegation representing some 20 UK professional service, project management and contracting companies will visit Riyadh on Monday for an infrastructure workshop hosted by the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) and organized by the Saudi British Joint Business Council (SBJBC).
The workshop will bring together major Saudi and British companies with representatives from the government sector to consider all key stages of infrastructure project planning and financing, and to facilitate sharing of expertise.
It follows the recent launch of Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program (NTP 2020), which has set ambitious targets for more efficient infrastructure planning and delivery in cooperation with the private sector.
“UK companies have considerable experience of public private partnerships (PPP), including building the necessary framework for private sector financing and management of major projects,” SBJBC’s UK Executive Director Chris Innes-Hopkins said.
The workshop will consider case studies of some PPP projects and lessons learned. It will also include panel sessions on business planning, management of contractual structures, and risk allocation between the public and private sectors addressed by major Saudi and UK practitioners.
The Saudi National Project Management Office and National Contractors Committee are participating in the workshop, which is also supported by the UK’s Department for International Trade.
The head of the Saudi side in the Saudi Business Council Nasser Al-Mutawa said SBJBC’s biannual meeting to be held in Riyadh on Wednesday will consider the workshop conclusions, with a view to agreeing specific cooperation proposals and organizing a second workshop on project delivery and management in 2017.
Al-Mutawa said the importance of the workshop lies in the implementation of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the NTP 2020 aimed at increasing the efficiency of the planning and implementation of infrastructure projects through a partnership between the public and private sectors.
He pointed out that the Kingdom can harness the vast experience of the British companies in the field of partnership between the public and private sectors (PPP), including the construction of the necessary frameworks for financing and management of major projects of the private sector.
He said that finding a formula for cooperation between the Saudi and British sides in the field of infrastructure projects would strongly support the effectiveness of this sector and enhances the efficiency and overcome the problems in the stalled projects with the help of British experience in the field.
Meanwhile, Saudi businessmen headed by Al-Mutawa and their British counterparts headed by Baroness Symons will hold the first meeting of the the British Joint Council for its new 2016-2019 term, at the CSC headquarters in Riyadh on Wednesday. 
The two sides will discuss opportunities for cooperation in the sectors of education, health care, infrastructure and services professional, information technology, telecommunications and tourism in the light of Vision 2030 and the implications of Britain's exit from the European Union and its relationship to trade and investment between the two countries.

Source: Arab News