UK to announce £100 million for new phase of Dubai World Trade Centre

The UK will provide £100 million in finance for construction of the fourth phase of the Dubai World Trade Centre as part of a new drive to boost UK exports

The announcement is to be made later on Wednesday at the UK Trade and Export Finance Forum in London, by Dr Liam Fox, UK Minister for International Trade.

The original World Trade Centre, built in 1979, stood as Dubai’s tallest building until 1999. The fourth phase of construction will see the building of an onsite hotel, with more than half of the supplies and services to come from the UK.

It follows earlier phases of British support for the first three phases of the World Trade Centre project.

Mr Fox said “The UK’s reputation for high-quality manufacturing and highly-skilled construction is renowned the world over. This government, through UK Export Finance, is taking a proactive approach to bringing business to the UK, with wide-reaching benefits for both individual UK businesses and the UK export economy as a whole.”

The announcement, which some have hailed as a post-Brexit trade coup, comes just days after reports claiming Dr Fox’s Department for International Trade was set to lose some 10 per cent of its foreign trade promotion staff. Hundreds of staff tasked with promotion British products in places such as China and Brazil are set to lose their jobs if the staffing cuts are carried out.

Construction began last year on the third phase of the DTWC project, the centre attracts almost 3 million people to hundreds of scheduled events every year.

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The announcement comes just a month after the UK set up a dedicated UK Export Finance Team in Dubai with £9 billion (AED47bn) at hand to finance projects in the UAE, with another £4.5 billion set aside for projects in Saudi Arabia.

The office is based in the British embassy complex in Dubai and led by former investment banker David Moleshead and international export finance executive Hannah Greenwood.

Carillion, a British contracting company, was heavily involved in the building the first phase of the Dubai World Trade Centre District, which extends from the existing World Trade Centre complex on Sheikh Zayed Road to Emirates Towers, before going into liquidation earlier this year.