UK Export Finance

Um, so in the past, the government has relied on foreign loans.

But if you look at, for instance, the 2023 budget, we're only talking about 10 trillion, uh, Iraqi dinars, and those loans, uh, you know, typically come from, um, Exim Bank and JICA and UK Export Finance, The World Bank.

Um, now this government, from my understanding, intends to secure upwards of $20 billion in foreign loans, and this really explains the issue of the deficit for this budget because it really depends on whether the government is able to secure these loans in their entirety or whether they will only secure part of these loans.

And that really is crucial because if the government is ambitious in its attempt to, for instance, overhaul the electricity sector, and we've talked about this in the past, the electricity ministry really wants to revamp the distribution sector.

Finally, this is not a criticism of public finance institutions.

Taken together, UK Export Finance, the British Business Bank, the National Wealth Fund and Innovate UK have mobilised around £50 billion in support for British businesses, projects and exports over the past couple of years.

And the British Business Bank is now the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds, something we should all be celebrating.

So, why, despite all of that, am I only giving our prospective factory 50-50 odds at best? I think it's a strange manifestation of the Macmillan gap, and probably born out of 40 years of de-industrialisation.

coming.

We've got UK Export Finance coming.

We've got Trade Advisors coming.

And, you know, it'll be a great party.

So I think Sovereign Sukuk is just one example of how established UK capabilities could be used more purposefully.

UK export finance, perhaps that provides another.

You know, over quite a lot of years now, UKEF has demonstrated its ability to support the most sizeable Sharia compliant transactions internationally.

But awareness of that capability within industry remains very uneven even now.

And clear engagement with market participants could help identify suitable projects and build a stronger commercial pipeline.

Those of you who have been following UK export finance will have seen how that's been happening bilaterally over the last year or so.

And closer engagement with market participants could also show how Islamic finance should remain part of wider market developments.

as the UK advances its work on digital capital markets, for example, there's great value right now for us in considering where Sharia compliant instruments may have credible applications within a broader agenda, not just for the sector, but integrated into the wider financial system.

They're actually investing in these projects.

However, what's absolutely crazy about these projects, even by the UK Export Finance self-evaluation, is the UK will only get around 167 million pounds back.

So they're going to spend 655 million pounds in Angola, and they're gonna get back from contracts for these infrastructure projects.

They're gonna get back 167 million pounds worth of contracts.

I cannot believe that they've come out and openly said that this is the amount of money that they're gonna spend in a country, and they're only gonna get, you know, uh, the, the, they're gonna get, like, a third of that back.

It makes no sense to anyone.

Um, but let's go into more detail, um, about, uh, the export finance group that Britain is using, UK Export Finance even.

Um, it's Britain's export credit agency.

public finance institutions.

Now, there are four of these, the British Business Bank, National Wealth Fund, UK Export Finance and Innovate UK.

Remember those four and remember that term, puffins, because very specifically, the Treasury says in its trail that John Healy will be using these to lend more aggressively to projects around the country, like the ones that you mentioned in Yorkshire, Liverpool, North East, that previously couldn't access them.

But here's the big difference.