By: Staff writer
LONDON (Somalilandsun) – The Somaliland in the UK has expressed their disapproval of the Somalia London Business Conference that is scheduled for December 10. The conference is advertesed at the website of a group called “World G18 Somalia”.
In a press statement released by the UK Somaliland Mission, the chair of the eOf course anyone is free to hold whatever meetings, conferences they so desire, but what is a matter of concern to us are attempts to include the Republic of Somaliland in the agenda of the conference without any involvement or agreement of the representatives of Somaliland.
We also deprecate any suggestions or impressions of the involvement of the large British Somaliland community groups in either the planning or the support of this conference. As the main umbrella group for the UK Diaspora groups, we state categorically that neither we, nor any other main Somaliland Diaspora group had any involvement in this Conference and would, in any case, not endorse any such conference as we believe that it has no specific relevance to the Republic of Somaliland.
There are many other local and national Somaliland development projects, such as the Somaliland Development Fund, as well as business/investment promotion initiatives in which our Somaliland community is involved. Other communities can do the same for their country. What we cannot accept though is the co-option of our community’s name and the Republic of Somaliland into conferences and events that have nothing to do with us. The UK Somaliland community is the oldest and largest Somali community in the UK and everyone knows who we are and where we can be contacted.
The IFC/World bank sponsored “Doing Business” Project has recently issued a report on Somaliland titled “Doing Business in Hargeisa” (the capital of Somaliland) which confirms that Somaliland has been, for decades, open for business. We urge anyone who is interested in doing business in Somaliland to contact the relevant Somaliland Representatives (see list below) and we, the UK Somaliland Diaspora are eager to assist in any way we can. Many of our Diaspora members are investors in Somaliland and can share experience and knowledge.
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The Somaliland Society UK is the Umbrella Group of the Somaliland Organisations in the UK
