Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

British firms neglect regional deals in China

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-08-18 17:07

British companies looking to expand into China are neglecting opportunities in the country's large regional cities by focusing on established centers such as Shanghai and Beijing, the Financial Times reported Monday, citing a government-funded study.

Lord Digby Jones, UK Minister for Trade and Investment, said he wanted British businesses to look beyond the traditional centers in China, to smaller, faster, growing cities where the growth potential was greater, the newspaper reported.

Figures show that exports to China have soared 44 percent in the first five months of the year, narrowing Britain's trade deficit with its fastest growing export market.

But much of the trade between China and the UK is focused on the four established centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the paper said.

The study has identified 35 other cities of more than one million people where infrastructure investment is surging and economic growth is faster.

The new study, prepared by Leeds University and the China-Britain Business Council for UK Trade & Investment, says many of the 35 target cities for British business lie in established regions such as the Yangtze River Delta around Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta around Shenzhen.

But others with promising opportunities include Shenyang and Dalian in the northeast, and Chengdu and Chongqing in western China. The 35 cities are home to 16 percent of China's population and generate 36 percent of its gross domestic product.