'BRIC' creator expects longer golden time in UK-China relations

LONDON - Jim O'Neill, who coined the term "BRIC" to describe leading emerging markets which include Brazil, Russia, India and China, told Xinhua on Tuesday that he wishes the "golden time" in UK-China relations could be longer.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in June that 2015 marked a "golden year" in the UK-China relations. And the British side was looking forward to welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping' s state visit to Britain in October.

O'Neill said he hopes the "golden time" in Sino-British relations could be longer at a seminar held by National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) on Tuesday.

"My suggestion to Chinese policy makers when I was in Beijing .. . why can we not make a golden rest of the decade, not just a golden year?" O'Neill told Xinhua.

O'Neill, who was appointed by Britain's Treasury as a commercial secretary in May, represented Britain to sign the founding articles of agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing on June 29.

The secretary, who is responsible for boosting infrastructure and improving competition policy, said that joining AIIB is of great significance to britain to build closer relationship with Asia.

When talking about the cooperation between Britain and China, the secretary told Xinhua that it would not only include some infrastructure projects in UK, but also contain nuclear power projects and many other things.

"I do believe it is a pretty exciting moment for our bilateral relations," he noted.

The Sino-British trade in goods amounted to 36.74 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2015, data from the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Britain showed.

Jin Xu, the economic and commercial counsellor, told Xinhua that China has become Britain's fourth largest trade partner, and Britain is China's second largest trade partner within the European Union (EU).