UK seeks Asian fintech ties post-Brexit
John Glen, UK’s Economic Secretary of the Treasury, has set off to promote the financial services industry throughout his tour in Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan.
He will promote economic collaborations, focusing on the areas of Islamic finance, green finance and fintech.
“We’re stepping away from the EU, but we are not stepping away from the world,” Glen says. “The UK and Asia have so much more room to grow together, especially in financial services.”
In spite of what the majority of economists believe, he still thinks that “Brexit is a golden opportunity to strengthen our ties with our partners across the world, ensuring the UK continues to thrive as a truly global country.”
Trade between Japan and the UK was worth £28 billion last year, with the UK exporting £13.7 billion worth of goods and services. 54.8% of all UK services exported landed in Japan.
UK exports to ASEAN were worth £17.1 billion last year, 50.8% of which was in financial or other business services.
The government considers trade with ASEAN nations increasingly important, due to the fact that the ten ASEAN nations collectively rank as the world’s sixth largest economy, with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.
The Minister will meet with the Indonesian Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati; the Malaysian Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng; and the Japanese State Minister for Finance, Kenichi Ueno; to discuss the aforementioned collaborations, as well as the Nikkei FinTech Summit, Japan’s largest fintech conference.
