Ｐｒａｇｍａｔｉｃ Ｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔ：Ｂｒｉｔｏｎ，ｃｈｉｎａ Ｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃ ａｎｄ Ｔｒａｄｅ Ｒｅｌａｔｉｏｎｓ

For British government， the pro-motion of trade and investmentin both directions are very impor-tant priority

Briton is a very important tradepartner of China in Europe.Beijing and London willbom Olympic Games successively in 2008and 2012. In the late period of October，China's Foreign Trade interviewed withSir. Christopher Hum， British Ambassa-dor in Beijing.

Q The china-Briton economicaid trade relations havedeveloped to a new stage.Would you give your point ofview about the relations?

A We are very happy about the de-velopment of the economic andtrade relationship betweenBriton and China， we believe the rela-tions expand very well and verysmoothly. For example， in last year，Briton's export to China was 2.3 bil-lion pounds， that was an increase of23%. We are in fact the third trade part-ner of China in the European Union(EU)， we are also the EU's largest in-vestor from Europe to China and wehave totally over 4300 enterprises withBritish investment. The total contractinvestment of Briton in China areUS$22 billion. For Britishgovernment， the promotion of tradeand investment in both directions arevery important priority， if we look atthe number of the British companieswhich are present in China， we canlook at the membership of the BritishChamber of Commerce. WithinChina's mainland， there are 1000 members of the British Chamber ofCommerce and in Hong Kong， thereare another 1000 members of BritishChamber of Commerce， the Britishcompanies are very heavily in the tradeand in investment in China and also inthe future we think the Chinese eco-nomic development will continue to bein great potential for furtherdevelopment.

Among 5 top foreign companies in-vested in China， 3 biggest industries arefrom Briton， they are Shell， BP and Brit-ish Telecom.

Q What is your point of view on thecurrent rapid groeth of Chineseeconmy?

A We are very impressed with theway that Chinese government manages tomaintain a very high but sustainable levelof economic development. We are verytouched by the fact that Chinese govern-ment brings many of the population of China out of poverty and give them verycomfortable life.

We see the Chinese Central Govern-ment has raised a concept of balanceddevelopment， we very understand whyChinese government raise this point ofbalanced and sustainable development.We are working with the Chinese gov-ernment to address the policy of new is-sue of sustainable development and glo-bal warming and more efficient use ofenergy， we look forward to coop-erate with China on these issues.

Q What is your point ofview on Chinese market?

A We believe that Chinesemarket is a very importantone to the European Unionfor a number of different reasons:the first is that China is one of themost dynamic economy in theworld; for the second we believethat in some of the areas China islooking for investment and tradewith Briton and Europeancountries; to talk about Britishcompanies for example， our companiesare very powerful in the areas like oiland power， we are very strong in finan-cial services， very strong in consumerand retail sector， and in these areas wesee very great potential in the future.

For the third we see trade and two-way investment and we look forward tomore Chinese investment in Briton andthe policies of doing out.

Q Please introduce yourEmbassy's iob in promatingthe bilateral economic andtrade relations.

A The British Embassy has very im-portant series of the activitieswhich are designed to introduceBritish companies into the market and tosupport the companies which are alreadyexporting and to encourage the trade inboth directions. We take a number of dif-ferent activities， for example， there arehigh-level visit in both directions includ-ing political visit and economic visit. Letme give you an example， one is PrimeMinister Tony Blair came to China inSeptember， People with him were a groupof high-level delegation of 30 leaders ofhigh-level enterprises. We also supportthree delegations in different sectors fromdifferent part of Briton， they came to tradediscussions， and they came to tradeexhibitions.

There are other organizations whichpresent to China， and we work incooperation with them. Besides theBritish Chamber of Commerce whichrepresents the companies which are al-ready present and active within China，there is also an organization which wecall the China-Briton Business Coun-cil which is supported by both Britishgovernment and British companies， andthey have set offices in 10 cities aroundChina. We also cooperate with them.And finally there is a body we call theConfederation of British Industry，which is supported by Britishcompanies， it has constructed an officein Beijing， the other two offices is inWashington and Brussels.

To our Embassy， with all theorganizations we try to coordi-nate the activities to provide pos-sible services to British compa-nies which are working in China.

Q We know that Beijing and Londonwill hold the Olympic Games successively2008 and 2012，with thebackground underconsideration，what doyou appraise the signifi-canoe of developing the eco-nomic and trade relationstween China and Briton?

A We see the trade and investmentrelationship as an important ele-ment of the overall relationshipbetween Briton and China. But our totalrelationship in China are going a lotwider between what we called compre-hensive strategic partnership betweenour two countries. So we find the prac-tice of trade and investment are very veryimportant， they are something which wepromote the coordination to fulfill thejob. I think a quite good example is thework we try to do in China in connec-tion with the 2008 Olympic Games. Be-cause we are very proud of the fact thatthe Olympic flame will be passed overfrom Beijing in 2008 to London in 2012.This is full of opportunities for both thetwo cities of Beijing and London to co-operate in different ways.

Another example is we have coopera-tion with China in the area of Sports Ad-ministration and trade. British companiesare very heavily involved in the construc-tion for the various facilities connected tothe Olympic Games in Beijing， forexample， a British engineering companyhas been involved in the construction ofthe airport terminal which are provided byour British architect. This company hasbeen involved in sport stadium and alsoin the swimming center for the OlympicGames. In addition， our countries are veryinterested in cooperating with the Authori-ties of Beijing， of aspects of holding thegames， for example， the security， thecrowd control， the equipment organizingand the ticket sales. This is just one ex-ample we are promoting the tradeinvestment， there should be a wider in-volvement in the light of China.

Q What advantages de youboast to attract China'sinvestment? What prefer-ential poi cies do you take to en-courage/oreign investment?

A The main advantage is we are inthe center of a very large and verypopular market. It is a market of375 million people， which is larger thanthe market of the United States and Japanput together. We have a very openedeconomy， and it is a wonderful reason whywe have one of the highest stock of pov-erty investment in the world， and very highproportion of the investment to all thecountries such as Japan， Korea， and wehave a tax system which is favorable toentrepreneurs. We are very well connectedto the other countries of Europe and weare an attractive center of Europe.

The other important thing is Briton isvery advanced in science and technology.And we have the highest number of theNobel Prize winners in proportion to thepopulation 0f the country in the world. Ouruniversities have a very high reputationin science and technology and they havevery good system in making science andtechnology available to companies wewish to take advantage in technology.There is a very good collaboration be-tween universities and researching insti-tutions and individual companies.

With our commercial policies， we tryto provide and we do provide a businessenvironment which are encourageous bothto domestic and foreign companies togrow. And we have low facilities costs andlow taxes. We also give a package of ad-vice to foreign investors which includefinding address of investment， managingproject and establishing for the financialadvice and advice of other aspects.

Q What pragmatic measuresde you take to promote thecollaboratlons between thecompanies of the two countries?

A We believe that we now have 370Chinese companies invested in theUnited Kingdom， 210 from themainland， 160 from Hong Kong， the ma-jority are in banking， consulting andtrading. More and more we have foundcompanies coming to Briton because thereis well established researchingdevelopment. An example provided is inthe area of telecommunication， for ex-ample we have Huawei， ZTE and ChinaTelecom; in the area of consumer goodswe have Hair， Media， in the area ofcomputer， we have Lenovo. One of themI have to mention in particular is Huawei，they have moved the headquarter fromGermany to Briton because they decidethat the condition is better in Briton. Theyare now establishing a researching centerin Briton which includes 200 people.

With regard to the cooperation be-tween the companies， I want to mention aspecial facility they offer， that is in Briton，they provide two science parks which arespecifically to attract Chinese companiesto come to work in British universities，one is Cambridge University， the other isManchester University.

Q What is you point of view onChinese Govenment's jobon enhanc nD the bilateralrelations? De you have any sug-gestion for Chinese Governmenton how to promote the bitateralrelations?

A We are very happy with the bilat-eral relationship with Chinesegovernment， there was a meeting togovernment economic trade committee inLondon at the beginning of November.Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai partici-pated in the meeting. As for the investmentby British companies in China， we natu-rally put forward to continue opening onthe Chinese economy in accordance withWTO Agreement. We welcome the workof Chinese government in protecting theintellectual property but we believe thatthere should be more work in that area.

However， we believe that there are toomuch restrictions for investment in theareas such as financial services， legalservices， we hope these restrictions willgradually be relaxed.

Q In early August，ChineseTourist Bureau warmly wel-comdr her Excellencywhat signal can we see In thiseven?

A We very much welcome touristsfrom China. We see a great num-ber of Chinese people going abroadfor tourism and expanding the refugee andwe welcome more and more Chinese tour-ists come to Briton. We think about UKas a particularly welcoming country， avery opening country， we have a multi-cultural population， and we do welcomeChinese guests. We think we have a lot tooffer to tourists， to refugees， ranging fromcities with very lively culture， to the beau-tiful countryside.

British tourism is a very good way ofbringing cultures together and in makingthe people from China to get to know eachother and each other country.

Q How can UK promote therelationship with china?

A We have a number of objectives ofPresidency of EU in China and wefeel we are making progress towardmese objectives， we held EU-China Sum-mit in September. We want to strengthenthe framework for cooperation betweenEU and China and it was agreed in Sep-tember to begin negotiation on the newagreement which gives us a new frame-work on the stronger cooperation. Wewant to strengthen the trade between Eu-ropean Union and China. The problem oftextile has been resolved and they want towork with China for a successful outcometo the WTO meeting in Hong Kong inDecember.

As Presidency of EU， we try to makeprogress toward the granting of market-ing economy status of China.

Finally we have reached an agreementwith China on a stronger， series and nec-essary cooperation to deal with the prob-lem of climate change and efficient en-ergy use.

Q Briton is very advancedservice trade， but Chnanot very developed in servicetrade Woad you put forward anysuggstoins to china in develop-ng the service trade?

A We have a very strong serviceindustry. With China， although ourvisible trade has a large trade deficit，in service trade， we have quite large surplus.We are very interested in helping China tostrengthen her service industry and we havea lot of things in different sectors to do. Ifwe take example of financial service sector，this is an area where our Briton is particu-lar strong. A number of British banks arenow making investment in Chinese banks，that is a way that the British banks knowl-edge and experiences can be transferred to Chinese financial sector. And we are co-operating in a lot of other areas， forexample， venture capital， financialeducation， and the development in Chinafor the stock firms in market.

Our general belief is the more openthat sector is to involvement of ourcompany， the better for the developmentfor that sector.

Q We know that China is alwaysaid an unfavorable condition inthe international trade dis-putes because of her status of non-market economy Accordin9 to youpoint of view，what is the weakestpoint of China to win the status ofmarket economy?

A The European Commission issueda report of China's progress to-ward market economy status， they lookat five criterions for giving that status.The European Commission concludesthat in the four of the five criterions that China has lost yet to meet the criterions.I think that there is a degree of controlby government institution over the de-velopment of the market in a number ofareas. We agree that there should be a se-ries of discussion between EuropeanUnion and China on way of these prob-lems can be overcome. We want the dis-cussion to go forward as quickly aspossible. We British government believethat in the end this is not just a technicalposition but also a political position. Wehope that EU will in the position to takethat decision.

Q In what other areas can Chi-nese Government and British Gevernment cooperate inpromoting the bilateral relations?

A British government and Chinesegovernment have identified fivesectors which we see priority sectors forour future cooperation， the first is energysources because we believe on the Chi-nese side there is a great interest in ac-quiring technology connected to energyin small efficient use. They use renewableenergy source， resources and we believethe British companies have a lot to offer.

The second sector is water whereChina sees a number of issues， problemsconnected to the supply of water， the treat-ment of water. Again our British compa-nies can make contributions.

The third area is the healthcare wherethe Chinese healthcare sector is expand-ing very fast. And we believe we can sup-ply equipment and experiences.

The fourth area is IT and communi-cation technology which is an active areain China. Briton can provide a lot of high-tech to this area.

The fifth area is the financial sector.