Britain Business Secretary Wants to Turn UK-China Golden Year Into a Golden Era

Britain’s Business Secretary Sajid Javid gives speech at the 7th World Chinese Economic Summit in London. [Photo/Karen Kwok for China Daily]

Britain’s Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, expects the UK to become China’s No.1 business partner in the west, turning what leaders on both sides have called the golden year into a golden era.

Javid, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and President of the Board of Trade, said that new trade and investment deals announced during President Xi Jinping’s state visit last month are just “a glimpse of what is possible”.

“This is just the beginning. President Xi’s state visit presented an unique opportunity to take things to the next level. The challenge now is to turn this golden year into a golden era,” he said.

“Even if the Chinese economy was grown only 5 percent this year, it was still representing a quarter of all global GDP growth in 2015.”

“We want to continue to welcome Chinese and South East Asia to the UK to compete in a level playing field that has no barriers and no special favours.”

The comments came during his opening presentation at the 7th World Chinese Economic Summit in London, where leading business leaders and government officials from China, Europe and the Southeast Asia region met to discuss the impact of China on the world and regional economies.

“China offers us a huge source of new investment, and business opportunities. A company recently invested 520 million pounds in the most northern part of the UK which created 1,000 British jobs. But it also opened its first overseas manufacturing facilities in Shangsu - creating jobs for Chinese workers too,” said Javid.

During his speech, Javid mentioned that the benefit of China’s growth is not just limited to the UK but to the world’s economy.

“After China joined the WTO, it enjoyed one of the best decades in its economic history. Its GDP quadrupled and its exports grew by more than 5 times. That’s why I welcome the new way of economy reforms that have been started by President Xi in 2013.”

“Opening up to more fine competition, especially in the services sector, benefits the Chinese economy and helps its companies be more competitive both at home and aboard.”

Javid also encouraged more trade in between South East Asian countries and China.

“In fact I think it’s a stunningly bad statistic that Britain still does more trade with Belgium than the whole of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam combined.”

“Although bilateral trade between the UK and the ASEAN markets was worth almost 23 billion pounds last year, there’s a lot more we can do together.”

“We saw that recently during the very successful visit of President Xi here in Britain, and that worked extremely well for both countries, and this kind of summit could help build on that for the future.’’

There were about 40 billion pounds ($62 billion) of Sino-British deals announced during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain on projects ranging from manufacturing industry to sectors as diverse as energy, retail and the digital economy.

The most high profile were the UK nuclear projects, which cost over 25 billion pounds, starting with the Hinkley Point C project, which represents one of the China’s biggest ever overseas investments. Hinkley Point C alone will generate a safe source of nuclear power nearly 6 million homes and provide up to 25,000 jobs.

The Chinese car maker Geely is investing 250 million pounds in a new factory R&D centre at an assembly plant for its London Taxi Company unit.

In the cultural field BBC Earth Film and SMG pictures are to co-produce a new documentary feature film for Cinema in 2017. It’s the first deal that had been completed under the landmark Sino-UK film co-production treaty that has ratified earlier this year.

York University and the China Capital investment group also developed a 200 million pound TV trainee program that will benefit up to 300 Chinese students each year.

To contact the reporter: nnewsroom@chinadailyuk.com