Competitiveness: the United Kingdom sets out to win over investors

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is preparing to shift gears in his efforts to attract vital foreign investment to meet his government’s growth targets.

Brought to power last July in the United Kingdom on the basis of an ambitious program, based on change, the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is preparing to move up a gear in his efforts to attract vital foreign investment for the achievement of his government’s growth objectives.

To this end, Starmer, also leader of the Labor Party, has called a high-level conference to which representatives of several international banks are invited alongside multinationals operating in sectors ranging from energy to manufacturing and beyond. by artificial intelligence.

The objective of the conclave is to present the assets, but above all the advantages that the United Kingdom, under Labour, intends to offer to investors to establish themselves in a country, once ranked as the leading investment destination in Europe before being dethroned by France. Analysts in the City, London’s financial district, believe that this conference comes at the right time, with the country at a turning point to break with an economic slowdown that has lasted too long.

The investment conference will be an opportunity for the head of Downing Street to clarify, in front of heavyweights of the world economy, how his government intends to overcome the difficulties which have hampered investments in the country in recent years, indicate the analysts.

Last July, the Labor Party succeeded in ending 14 years of Conservative government, with voters handing Labor a resounding victory in the legislative elections in the hope of shaking the country out of its economic lethargy. UK Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, an influential body in the City, estimated in a recent report that the United Kingdom needs £100 billion in foreign investment per year to increase its GDP growth to 3%.

These investments must be distributed across key sectors of the country’s economic activity including housing, energy and infrastructure, the taskforce indicated. However, the group stressed that to achieve this goal, the government must put in place measures to make the country more attractive for investment. This involves in particular measures capable of restoring investor confidence. A confidence which seems to be shaken to say the least by the uncertainty which looms as the presentation of the Labor government’s first budget approaches on the 30th of this month.

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves had suggested that the budget will have to include “painful” decisions, particularly relating to taxes. A wait-and-see atmosphere is settling in the country in view of this deadline. A report released last September showed that several companies have put their expansion plans on hold while awaiting the budget.

Furthermore, investors do not hide their concern about the government’s “not very optimistic” message regarding the economic situation that Labor inherited from the previous conservative government.

The leaders of the City had sounded the alarm about the risks that this “pessimistic” speech poses for the image of the United Kingdom among investors. A warning that Labor seems to have heard. Proof of this is the change in tone noted at the annual conference held recently in Liverpool. Starmer and his Chancellor of the Exchequer took this opportunity to try to allay concerns, emphasizing that the United Kingdom, with its financial and economic power, is capable of succeeding in its challenge of renewal and economic take-off.

Sami Nemli with agencies / Les Inspirations ECO