South: UKTI wins United Nations award for attracting foreign investment

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has won an award at the United Nations World Investment Forum for excellence in attracting foreign investment.

UKTI received the award at the grand opening of the 2014 World Investment Forum at the Palais des Nations in Geneva which is organised by UNCTAD, the United Nations body responsible for development and trade.

UNCTAD’s World Investment Forum biannual awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the world’s best-practice investment promotion agencies (IPAs).  This year’s IPA awards were presented for ‘Excellence in promoting Foreign Direct Investment for sustainable development’.

UKTI was the only award winner from a European or any developed market. A group of 31 projects from 29 agencies were shortlisted for the awards.

Didier Drogba, United Nations development programme goodwill ambassador, presented the UNCTAD Investment Promotion Award (IPA) award to UKTI for its work with Gamma Solutions which is expected to deliver investment in renewable energy valued at £400 million into the UK between 2014 and 2017.

UKTI chief executive Dominic Jermey said: “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award. It reflects both the professional expertise of UKTI and also the attractiveness of the UK as a place to invest.

“UKTI’s renewables specialists were instrumental in helping Gamma Solutions to choose the UK over 13 other new markets they were considering.”

Gamma Solutions has opened an office and R&D facility in the Innovation Centre at the University of Exeter, and subsequently expanded into London’s Tech City. The Gamma Solutions projects will generate 325MW capacity by 2017, enough electricity to power over 600,000 homes and reducing fossil fuel C02 generation output by 640,000 tonnes per annum.

Alfredo Garcia from Gamma Solutions said: “Thanks to the Embassy in Madrid and UKTI’s teams both here and in the UK, we had reliable market research to inform our decisions.

“We understood how to set up a local company and find offices which gave us a solid beginning allowing us to grow.”