By Andrew Staples, Chief Business Reporter
DUBAI: Syria could follow Iran as a hot new infrastructure market, UK Minister for Transport Claire Perry said on Tuesday.
Perry, speaking in an interview at the Middle East Rail Conference, said reconstruction offered great opportunities.
“Iran is hugely important, and I think you can take an optimistic view and say that will be the case in Syria in five, ten years’ time — this sort of reconstruction hub, as we choose call it, working together with the counties, is huge.
“And Iran is fascinating, because of course any progress there needs to be tied in to the various nuclear deals that have been signed and there is a real recognition that we need to proceed very carefully, but there are great opportunities.”
Perry was reluctant to expand on potential opportunities in Syria. “I’m well outside my sphere of expertise, but who would have thought five years ago that Iran would suddenly become a really big infrastructure investment opportunity? That there would be a resolution of the nuclear problems, there would be a relaxation of sanctions.”
She said that she believed the UK had much to offer Middle Eastern countries seeking to expand their railway infrastructure.
“Despite the oil price changes there is clearly a great commitment to invest in the transport infrastructure,” she said, “which is interesting because that is exactly what we’re doing in the UK.
“We have an amazing heritage in railways. We invented the railway, we’ve created many of the world’s best railways. Now, ourselves, partners in the GCC and other countries see rail as a solution to 21st century transport problems.”
Current UK investment in domestic rail — at a level unprecedented since Victorian times, she said — gave the UK a great export platform.
“We have a long history of relationships, diplomatic relationships, and that helps us understand what local partners want.”
