U.K. Chancellor makes historic first visit to Xinjiang in northwestern China

U.K. Chancellor George Osborne became the first serving government minister to visit Urumqi in Xinjiang in northwestern China as he welcomed a major new investment in the Northern Powerhouse by a Xinjiang-based firm and announced a new aim to make China the U.K.’s second-largest trading partner. The Chancellor visited Hualing Industry and Trade Group, which announced its intention to provide the investment needed to unlock three major property projects in Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield with a gross value of £1.2 billion. The three projects, which are being led by the U.K.’s Scarborough Group, are expected to create 18,000 jobs and enable the delivery of 10,000 much-needed new homes, helping to build the Northern Powerhouse. The Chancellor’s historic visit came as he announced a new ambition to make China the U.K.’s second-largest trading partner by 2025, potentially adding billions to Britain’s economy, as part of the government’s wider efforts to increase U.K. exports to £1 trillion a year and to get 100,000 more U.K. companies exporting. According to the latest available trade figures from the Office of National Statistics, China is currently the U.K.’s sixth-largest trading partner, with British exports to the country totalling £25 billion in 2013. A key part of raising the level of the U.K.’s trade relationship with China to this next level is helping British firms take advantage of the huge potential benefits from China’s investment in new trade routes to the west. In support of this, the Chancellor also launched a new study by the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) and the U.K. Foreign Office, which sets out the opportunities available to British companies alongside practical advice for U.K. firms on where the opportunities will be and how to start benefiting from them. Entitled ‘One Belt, One Road’ after the massive new One Belt, One Road Initiative (OBOR) to create new trading routes between China and Europe, the study includes advice for U.K. firms on the funding streams open to them to grow and develop in the region—including those created by the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which the U.K. joined as a prospective founding member earlier this year.