Amazon and the British government announced on Tuesday that the US tech giant will invest £8 billion ($10.5 billion) in Britain over the next five years, creating thousands of new jobs.
Amazon said in a statement that the investment, which will be allocated to building, operating and maintaining cloud computing data centers in the United Kingdom, could contribute £14 billion ($18.2 billion) to the country’s GDP and “support” more than 14,000 jobs annually across the supply chain.
This huge investment is good news for the new Labour government, which is seeking to prove its capabilities on the economic front.
The good news comes as new Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces criticism after announcing that his government’s first budget, due on October 30, will be “painful”, with spending cuts and tax increases.
For her part, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said in a statement that this announcement “represents the beginning of the economic recovery and shows that Britain is a good place to do business.”
“But I will be honest with the British people: change will not happen overnight,” she added.
The British government has made boosting economic growth one of its top priorities and is relying in particular on establishing a “national sovereign fund” that is supposed to pump £7.3 billion ($9.5 billion) into it over five years to boost investment in the country.
