Foreign and Military Affairs
Sino-UK trade to top PM visit
By Zhang Haizhou and Zhang Chunyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-03 08:33
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LONDON - Boosting bilateral trade is set to top David Cameron's agenda during the British Prime Minister's first China visit this month since taking office in May.
Analysts, officials, and business leaders in the UK also said the two countries can move beyond a business-to-business partnership by having more cooperation in areas like healthcare and legal issues.
Cameron's two-day visit will start on Nov 9 before he heads to Seoul for the G20.
During his stay, Cameron will meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. The size of Cameron's team was described as the "biggest ever" in the UK leaders' China visit.
He will be accompanied by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Huhne and Education Minister Michael Gove, as well as more than 50 leaders in the business and commerce industry, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news conference on Tuesday.
"The visit is significant to the long-term development of Sino-UK relations," Hong said.
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Britain is aware that China is an "ever-greater presence in the UK", noted Rana Mitter, a professor of University of Oxford China Center.
Mitter said the two countries "need each other" in an interdependent world.
"China needs economic growth, not just at home but also in the UK and the rest of the world - after all, it needs a market to export its goods."
China is the UK's second-biggest trade partner after the EU, while London is Beijing's third-biggest trade partner in the 27-nation bloc. Total trade volume, reached $39.1 billion in 2009.
It had already reached $26.6 billion in the first seven months of 2010 - up 32.1 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK.
Despite growth and positive figures, some have pointed out that bilateral trade and investment need to be more balanced between China and the UK.
While China has become the sixth-biggest investor in projects in the UK, according to the UK Trade & Investment, the latter exports more to Ireland than it does to China, Brazil, Russia and India put together.
The British government "should also make it easier for businesses to export their goods and services - including by providing information, contacts and financial backing and removing constraints to trade", Richard Lambert, director-general of the UK's top business lobbying organization the Confederation of Business Industry, said last week.
Not just B-2-B
Despite trade and investment, observers said China and the UK, strategic partners since 2004, should have more areas to cooperate on.
Mitter, of Oxford University, said the UK "remains one of the world's major economies with significant strengths in areas such as finance, higher education, and international legal services".
The City of London, the financial center of the British capital, had on Monday established an advisory council composed of prominent Chinese government and financial figures to guide its engagement with China.
Alex Mackinnon, an international strategy consultant and co-author of China Calling: A Foot in the Global Door and China Counting: How the West Was Lost, said China can learn from the UK's experience in healthcare.
China can benefit from "a closer linkage at the inter-governmental level" with the UK, which "has a national health service with a large administration covering urban and rural medical provision".
Mackinnon pointed out two other areas where there is room for "lateral thinking".
"The development of contract law is highly respected and advanced internationally in the UK," said Mackinnon.
"There is also in the UK a fair and reasonable arbitration environment and China could agree that some disputes may be allowed to be arbitrated in the UK under guidance from scholars of both nations," he added.
Ai Yang contributed to this story.
