KUWAIT: A visiting British official has declared that London aspires to see Kuwait expand its enterprises in the United Kingdom to the technology field. Lord Dominic Johnson, Britain's Minister of State in the Department for Business and Trade, indicated in an exclusive interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that upon this aspiration, his current mission in the country mainly aims at bolstering mutual cooperation and partnerships to cover environmentally friendly technology.

Lord Johnson, in the interview of KUNA, shed much light on the existing business and investment cooperation between the State of Kuwait and the UK, underlining that the two countries are celebrating the 70th anniversary of opening Kuwait Investment Office (KIO) in London. The KIO, one of the oldest of this level in the UK, has invested in many vital sectors, namely real estate and infrastructure, said the British minister of state. In fact, the Kuwaiti office was the first of its kind to be established worldwide, Lord Johnson affirmed, adding that many states took lessons from the Kuwaiti business experience.

Shifting to other aspects of the historical Kuwait-British relationship, dating back to early times of the past century, Lord Johnson said these ties have not been restricted to investments, also involving the arenas of defense and cyber security. Moreover, the two countries share a joint vision with regard of regional and international affairs. Kuwait and Britain regularly examine issues of joint concern within framework of the steering committee that meets every six months for this purpose.

Regarding the UK-GCC negotiations on the free trade zone, third round of which were held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 23, Lord Johnson said the fourth round would be organized next week, noting that the planned talks would cover information security and transfer of commercial data, and not only issues related to exports and imports.

He indicated that the UK and the GCC would examine hurdles facing the mutual cooperation and facilitating personnel's movement among the involved countries. In conclusion, Lord Johnson expressed satisfaction at presence of many Kuwaitis in the UK for tourism and education and urged the Kuwaiti citizens who have not visited his country to go there to explore the nation's landmarks. - KUNA