UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet US President Joe Biden in Northern Ireland on Tuesday as the pair mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
In a statement from 10 Downing Street, Mr Sunak outlined his plans for the commemorations, and stressed his commitment to the Agreement’s “promise of a better future”.
The Good Friday Agreement ended a violent, 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland, with the creation of a new government representing nationalists and unionists, the two warring communities.
“It is that promise of a better future that we offered to everyone in Northern Ireland that I will be thinking of first and foremost over the coming days,” Mr Sunak said. “It is my responsibility as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to ensure we are making good on that promise.”
Brexit has in recent years destabilised the political situation, as Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK to have a border with an EU country, the Republic of Ireland.
On Tuesday evening, Mr Sunak will meet President Biden off Air Force One to welcome him to Northern Ireland. A further meeting with President Biden has been planned as part of the US President’s engagements.
On Wednesday, Mr Sunak will travel to Belfast again to address Queen’s University’s ‘Agreement 25’ conference to commemorate the anniversary.
“The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement was an incredible moment in our nation’s history. It was a powerfully rare example of people doing the previously unthinkable to create a better future for Northern Ireland,” Mr Sunak said.
“It is that promise of a better future that we offered to everyone in Northern Ireland that I will be thinking of first and foremost over the coming days,” he added, “It is my responsibility as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to ensure we are making good on that promise.”
This is President Biden’s first visit to Northern Ireland since taking office. The US President often talks about his family’s Irish roots and his interest in issues related to Northern Ireland.
“The United States greatly supported the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement process and has played a pivotal role in boosting prosperity in Northern Ireland over the last 25 years,” said the statement from the Prime Minister’s office.
“The Prime Minister will use President Biden’s visit and his engagements with business leaders and others in Belfast to celebrate Northern Ireland’s successes and encourage further long-term investment.”
In the past decade, the United States became one of the largest sources of foreign investment into Northern Ireland, with investments up to £1.5 billion and creating 13,000 jobs, according to the statement.
Around 1,000 US-owned businesses operate in Northern Ireland, including the US tech company Microsoft. In 2022, businesses in Northern Ireland exported goods worth more than £1 billion to the United States.
“In the past few months the economic links between the US and Northern Ireland have grown further, with companies like semiconductor manufacturer Wolfspeed announcing a major R&D partnership with Queen’s University Belfast,” said the statement, “Wolfspeed is based in North Carolina, a US state the UK signed a state-level trade agreement with in July last year.”
Mr Sunak said he was “relentlessly focused” on supporting economic growth in Northern Ireland. He will also announce the launch of the Northern Ireland Investment Summit in September this year.
Belfast is currently the second biggest city for technology companies in the UK, and the summit aims to connect international investors with Northern Ireland businesses.
“Northern Ireland — like the rest of the UK — is teeming with opportunities, talent and ingenuity,” Mr Sunak said. “The biggest thing we can do to improve people’s standard of living and secure a prosperous and thriving Northern Ireland, is economic growth.”
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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