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The Lord Mayor, City of London, says infrastructure, capital markets, training and education are key areas in which the UK and Oman can work together

PAlderman Davis Lewis, the Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, City of London is the 680th mayor of the city of London over the last 818 years. The Lord Mayor is the head of the city of London, providing local government services for the square mile – the financial and commercial heart of Britain. He is committed to maintaining and enhancing the status of the city as the world's leading international financial and business centre. Leading a delegation of businessmen, lawyers and bankers to Oman Lewis takes time out of his busy schedule to speak to BusinessToday.

Excerpts:
You are on a 12-day visit to the region. What is on the agenda?

We are visiting four countries (Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) over the next 11-12 days. The purpose of this visit is to build upon our excellent relationships in the Gulf region, relationships that are based on decades of trust and partnership. Clearly, the Gulf states are doing extremely well. Look at the Omani economy – the GDP is healthy, inflation is under control and the country's surpluses excellent. The sultanate’s budgeting is prudent as the current budget estimates are based on oil prices being at US$45 per barrel, while actual prices last year was around US$65 per barrel. So the country is doing extremely well.

Britain is the largest investor in Oman and we are keen to increase our investments in the country. We would like to help Oman with its infrastructure projects. We are told that projects worth US$40bn are in various stages of implementation in Oman. We have an enormous amount of expertise in the city of London in areas like project finance and this can help Oman. The other big area where we can help in is ETQ (education, training and qualification). There are 16 universities from the UK that have joint ventures with educational institutions in Oman and this can be expanded to help Oman with its vocational and postgraduate training. An increase in the pace of activity in the region has meant that there is a shortage of skilled people. We can help Oman with secondments (temporary transfer of an official to another employment or to another position). We have a number of Omani students in London and we will be happy to have some more. So overall infrastructure, capital markets, training and education are the three big areas in which we can work together with Oman.

London and New York are seen as fierce competitors for being the premier financial centre of the world. How has London been faring on this count?
Independent reports suggest that London is slightly ahead of New York as a financial centre. This is primarily because we have a large pool of talented people. We have 1.3mn people in the financial sector in London contributing 14.5 per cent of UK's GDP. Out of this, about 200,000 are people who have come from abroad and do not hold British passports. The average age of these 200,000 is as low as 31 years. These highly skilled people come to London and bring their talent to the city. When they go back they do the same in their respective countries. The constant stream of people coming to London creates a buzz around the city.

Another thing that marks us apart from New York is the liberalisation of our market. We believe in competition. We welcome foreign investors and our regulatory system is much more flexible than that of New York. The US has Sarbanes Oxley Act, which makes investing in New York relatively more difficult. Having said that I would like to say that while it feels good to be ahead of New York, the important thing is that London and New York remain a strong force together. In an age of globalisation, the two financial centres are interdependent. London is full of American banks and they are doing a wonderful job. So I am not in favour of beating New York on its head. What is important is that these two cities are interlinked and if New York gets into a major problem like the subprime crisis, it hits the whole world. And so it would be very shortsighted to crow about London versus New York.


You are the 680th mayor of the city of London. What are your thoughts on the job?
It is an enormous privilege to be the Lord Mayor of London. It is also a great responsibility. One is representing the entire financial services sector and it is great fun. And since it is only for 12 months and not forever I think it is the best job in the world except that you don’t get paid for it.

Has your background as a corporate lawyer helped you in your present assignment?
To be the Lord Mayor of London and in order to represent the financial services sector properly, one needs to be a part of the corporate sector and has to have some experience in it. I have spent 38 years in the field of corporate finance all over the world and that has been a huge help.