Dear CBI members and partners,
China Direct has summarized below the key UK-China announcements made during a busy and productive week for UK-Sino relations.
Chinese Ambassador to U.K. speaks at reception in honour of KPMG Chairman
Chinese Ambassador to the U.K. Liu Xiaoming spoke at a reception held in honour of KPMG Chairman Richard Reid. The Ambassador highlighted some of Mr. Reid’s impressive contributions to strengthening relations between China and the U.K., including:
- Mr.Reid established KPMG’s U.K.-China Business to work with Chinese groups as they expand overseas. KPMG has played an important role in facilitating investments between China and the U.K.
- In 2012, KPMG was involved in seven out of the eight major Chinese investments in the U.K., including CIC’s investment in Thames Water and Heathrow Airport.
- KPMG has been a leading advisor for China’s potential investment in the U.K.’s nuclear power generating market.
- KPMG assisted Jaguar Land Rover to enter the Chinese market and form a joint venture with Chery Auto.
Please read the full transcript of the Ambassador’s speech here.
U.K. Chancellor announces £3 million funding for grassroots football programme
U.K. Chancellor George Osborne announced a £3 million funding boost for a revolutionary grassroots football programme in China, supporting thousands of young people.
Speaking during a visit to the Soong Ching Ling Football School in Urumqi, the Chancellor announced new funding to provide training for over 5,000 new football coaches, significantly increasing Chinese awareness of the thriving football sector in the U.K.
The extension of the highly successful Premier Skills football coaching programme, run by the British Council and the Premier League, will also see it reach Xinjiang for the very first time. The initiative, which started in 2008, focuses on creating new coaches and referees across the world and inspiring young people to get involved in football.
So far the programme has trained 1,100 coaches and reached nearly 500,000 young people in China. The announcement follows a new agreement between the British and Chinese governments to work together in developing sports education, including new collaborations on sports policy, the training of coaches and referees, and a new joint accreditation in football coaches for PE teachers.
The Chancellor said, “Grassroots football plays an instrumental role in U.K. life, and it is brilliant to be able to spread that to China. This fantastic scheme which will bring new opportunities to young people across China will also help bring increased awareness and investment into the U.K. football sector.” Please read more here.
U.K. Chancellor announces support measures to showcase British culture
U.K. Chancellor announced a raft of support measures to open up some of the country’s best arts and culture to Chinese audiences. Examples include:
- British Library to display some of its most iconic literary treasures in China for first time ever: Ten handwritten manuscripts and early editions by some of the best-known British authors of all time, from William Shakespeare to the Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, will star in pop-up exhibitions across China between 2016 and 2019. The British Library will also begin creating related online resources in Mandarin. This follows the opening of a new display at the British Library in London showcasing 3,000 years of Chinese writing, from ancient engraved animal bones to a vast 15th century encyclopaedia.
- Shakespeare’s Globe to tour China with revival of The Merchant of Venice: To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death next year, Shakespeare’s Globe will tour China with a revival of The Merchant of Venice, which premiered at the Globe in April this year to full houses for over 6 weeks. £500,000 of government funding will also develop a training programme for Chinese arts organisations to develop their learning and community projects. This complements the £1.5 million investment announced at the 2014 UK-China Economic Financial Dialogue in support of the Royal Shakespeare Company for the translation of Shakespeare into Mandarin and the translation of seminal Chinese plays into English.
- £500,000 to support Royal Opera House training programme for Chinese students: The Royal Opera House currently provides training to Chinese delegations on an ad hoc basis, so this Sino-U.K. funding will offer Chinese students the opportunity to travel to London for intensive training courses with world-leading arts institutions.
- New Love China Festival at Southbank Centre: This will celebrate the U.K.’s cultural links with China through workshops, exhibitions and performances showcasing the best of music, theatre, fashion, design, dance, comedy, and literature from the U.K. and China. It builds on the success of the Southbank Centre’s annual Alchemy Festival celebrating the U.K.’s links with the Indian subcontinent.
- £250,000 for National Theatre of Great Britain, working in collaboration with National Theatre of China to develop tour of War Horse across China: The tour will follow its recent performances in Beijing and Shanghai. The show will be produced, operated, and performed by 90 Chinese artists and technicians who have been trained as part of the strategic skills exchange between the two national theatres.
- £1.3 million to support presentation in China of Tate’s exhibition of British art, Landscapes of the Mind: British Landscape Painting (1700 – 2007): The exhibition comprises over one hundred celebrated works drawn from Tate’s unrivalled collection of British art, including David Hockney’s ‘Bigger Trees near Water’. Most of these will be presented in China for the first time. This exhibition, which has travelled to Mexico City and São Paulo, will forge a new museum partnership for Tate in China and follows the successful presentation of a landmark Turner exhibition at the National Art Museum of China, in Beijing in 2009.
- Victoria & Albert Museum to create new system for interpreting Chinese images: £300,000 of funding will support the initial stages of creating a bilingual English-Mandarin database of pre-1900 Chinese cultural and literary sources.
- £700,000 to showcase tourism in North of England as part of Northern Powerhouse: The Chancellor’s visit to China was a key opportunity to highlight the economic and cultural impetus of the U.K.’s Northern Powerhouse, and the campaign will encourage Chinese visitors to explore the Yorkshire moors, Beatrix Potter, and Wordsworth countryside in the Lake District, and historical sites such as Hadrian’s Wall.
- £1.3 million for VisitBritain ‘culture is GREAT’ campaign in China: This will highlight Britain’s cultural capital. Sally Balcombe, VisitBritain’s CEO, also joined the Chancellor during his tour of China.
- New Eden Project in Qingdao: The Eden Project has signed a deal, worth up to £5 million, for a new Eden Project in Qingdao—the company’s first development outside of the U.K.
Please read more here.
U.K. Chancellor opens £11.8 billion HS2 bidding process
U.K. Chancellor George Osborne announced a major new milestone for the government’s High Speed 2 rail project (HS2), kick-starting the bidding process for phase one of the mega construction project.
At least seven new contracts will be opened up to companies, with a total combined value of £11.8 billion. The Chancellor made the announcement at an event in Chengdu, aimed at wooing some of China’s biggest investors to be part of the project as well as a raft of other major U.K. infrastructure projects.
Mr. Osborne also announced a new ‘HS2 partnering day’ between British and Chinese firms to explore joining up on bids for contracts, as well as launching the Northern Powerhouse pitchbook. HS2 forms a major part of the government’s plan to rebalance the U.K. economy and build a Northern Powerhouse by providing high speed rail services from London to the Midlands and the North.
Construction of phase 1 is due to start in 2017 and, when opened, will slash the travel time between London and Birmingham from one hour and 21 minutes to 49 minutes. The government is organising an ‘HS2 partnering day’ to give Chinese companies an opportunity to meet U.K. firms and establish potential partnerships to join up on bids.
The Chancellor is also inviting Chinese participation in the HS2 skills college, which is due to open in 2017. A skills-swap programme would allow the U.K. to benefit from China’s expertise as a world leader on High Speed Rail and help Chinese investors better understand the U.K. market. The Chancellor is also encouraging Chinese companies to take part in an HS2 ‘regeneration tour’, which would involve visiting areas of huge commercial opportunity in London, the Midlands, and the North. Investors would have the chance to meet with relevant local authorities and visit station sites. Please read more here.
U.K. Chancellor showcases Northern Powerhouse investment opportunities
U.K. Chancellor George Osborne showcased a selection of £24 billion worth of investment opportunities in the North of England at an event in Chengdu with senior Chinese investors.
The Chancellor said there are unprecedented opportunities for Chinese investment into the Northern Powerhouse as the U.K. and China enter a golden era of economic cooperation.
Infrastructure and regeneration investment projects such as the Atlantic Gateway, a series of projects connecting the Port of Liverpool to the City of Manchester, and Science Central, a cutting-edge development in the heart of Newcastle, are set out in a new Northern Pitchbook that was presented in Chengdu.
At the same time, Britain’s Northern leaders said a new wave of transformational Chinese investment can revolutionise Northern infrastructure. Key projects for which investment is sought include:
- Manchester Place—an opportunity to deliver three new zones of more than 10,000 homes with a combined value of over £3 billion
- Sheffield Retail Quarter—working with Sheffield City Council to create new city centre homes and centrally located offices
- South Bank, Leeds—a new regeneration scheme covering more than 130 hectares in the city centre
Alongside the Pitchbook, the Chancellor also announced:
- potentially doubling Enterprise Zones across the North
- commissioning a new government report looking at existing links between U.K. and Chinese cities to help the U.K. better understand how it can attract more trade with China
- a commitment to reinvigorate partnerships between Northern and Chinese cities, including Sheffield’s Sister City agreement with Chengdu, which has fostered significant business, civic, and cultural links since 2010
- the secondment of staff from the China Rail Construction Corporation, the world’s largest railway company, to Mott MacDonald, the U.K.-based management, engineering, and development consultancy, in Manchester
- the findings of a city-clusters research project based on the Chongqing-Chengdu cluster and the Northern Powerhouse
- a new service, established by Lancaster University, to bring together U.K. and Chinese universities, researchers and businesses to take research to commercialisation
- a new joint PhD programme to teach the next generation of Chinese Radio Astronomers at the Square Kilometre Array headquarters at Jodrell Bank
- a new offer on the Chevening Scholarship Programme to those in the Northern Powerhouse who wish to strengthen ties with Chinese students. Durham, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, and York universities (the ‘N8’) have all expressed an interest so far
Please read more here.
UKTI and Shanghai FTZ partner to help U.K. companies with e-commerce sales
U.K. Business Secretary Sajid Javid signed a partnership agreement on behalf of U.K. Trade and Investment (UKTI) with the Shanghai Cross-Border e-Commerce Public Platform.
The signing took place at the first ever China-U.K. Cross-Border e-Commerce Cooperation Roundtable organised by the Bank of China in Shanghai. The partnership was organised as part of UKTI’s e-Exporting Programme.
The agreement will support U.K. exporters and help promote their online sales in China by helping them to find new customers, build brand awareness, and analyse Chinese consumer requirements. The Shanghai Cross-border e-commerce Public Platform will work with UKTI to:
- provide help to U.K. companies wishing to sign up to e-commerce platforms registered in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ)
- encourage e-commerce platforms registered in the Shanghai FTZ to run a marketing campaign promoting U.K. brands on their platforms
- share information to help U.K. companies understand the opportunities in China and how they can be optimised through e-channels in the Shanghai FTZ
UKTI will work to grow the volume of U.K. online exports to China through the Shanghai FTZ e-marketplace by:
- delivering a programme with U.K. partners to increase the number of companies seeking to export through global e-marketplaces
- promoting opportunities for U.K. companies to grow their business in China through e-marketplaces
- working with partners and private sector experts to provide peer-to-peer mentoring for U.K. companies seeking to export through e-channels
- delivering a retail and brands campaign across relevant e-commerce platforms in the Shanghai FTZ
Please read more here.
