I headed to Qatar on Saturday, with the Association taking 20 UK companies to exhibit at Project Qatar. The Association channels government funding from UKTI to support companies generally but especially SMEs, who are new, or relatively new exporters.
On Monday, the first day of the show, the Association showed Michael O'Neill, the UK Ambassador to Qatar, around the stands. Local embassy staff were also in attendance. Earlier in the day the exhibiting companies attended a briefing at the UK Embassy on doing business in Qatar.
More visits to major clients and projects have been lined up. I will also be meeting with a number of key bodies first met on the two technical standards missions in 2012. That work, now supported by UKTI and the standards envoy, Dr. Kevin Towler, is continuing to pay dividends with Gulf States becoming more willing to keep UK friendly codes and standards rather than continue the previous trend to American ones.