Busy month for China-Britain business dialogue

Trade and investment events take in all points of the compass

Stephen Phillips, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, says he is seeing continued investment interest in China from British companies in many sectors.

"This is inevitable in a country as large and as diverse as China," he says. "Clearly different regions of China are at different states of development."

The CBBC is the leading organization helping British companies develop their business in China. It's mission statement is to help them "access the full potential of the fastest growing market in the world".

"We see a lot of interest at the moment in areas such as meeting the needs of the Chinese consumer, both at home and abroad (in) healthcare, environmental and clean technology, education and Chinese outbound investment," Phillips says.

To promote Britain's expertise in these areas, Phillips is leading a delegation to the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen this month.

CBBC has regularly been represented at the fair since its inception, and Phillips says he looks forward to an active program there again this year.

"Our program will include a China outbound investment seminar, supporting a major e-commerce event, as well as meetings with a range of provincial delegations from across China."

Apart from the Xiamen fair, CBBC will also be represented this month at the China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and at the China (Jilin)-Europe Business Meeting in Changchun, Phillips says.

"It is notable how diverse the regions we will cover just in the first half of September are: from developed Fujian, to changing Jilin and to developing Xinjiang and the emergence of the Silk Road economic belt."

Britain is China's second-largest trading partner in the European Union and a major destination for China's overseas investment. Two-way trade was worth $70 billion (53 billion euros) last year.

UK exports to China have more than doubled since 2009 and are growing faster than those of its French and German competitors. The value of British exports to China last year averaged more than 1 billion pounds a month, the British government says.

"This is all part of our sustained effort, along with all of our members and partners, to boost trade and investment between our two countries," Phillips says.

A joint statement issued after the recent meeting between visiting Premier Li Keqiang and his British counterpart David Cameron in June said that the China-Britain partnership has become an indispensable element of each other's foreign policy agendas.

China and Britain stand ready to expand economic and trade cooperation and promote development in each other's markets. They renewed their commitment to a joint target of $100 billion by next year.

British companies have a long history in investing in China and Chinese investment in Britain has made huge progress. In the past two years, Chinese companies have invested more than $13 billion in Britain, surpassing the total investment of the previous 30 years.

Of the China-UK economic and financial dialogue to be co-hosted by Chinese Vice-Premier Ma Kai and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in London this month, Phillips says: "The dialogue is one of the important government-to-government mechanisms between China and the UK that help lay the groundwork for the future trade and investment relationship.

"Businesses from both countries will hope to see progress made on some of the challenges they face. At the same time, they will hope to see more progress on new areas for collaboration (that) open up."

zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/05/2014 page19)