18 January 2008
Transcript of the Prime Minister’s words to a UK-Chinese Business Summit following a press conference with Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, 18 January 2008. Mr Brown said that opportunities for partnership between the countries were "boundless".
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Prime Minister
Let me say first of all that I am honoured to be sharing a platform with Premier Wen Jiabao on this day when we are ushering in a new comprehensive strategic partnership between Britain and China, and I am delighted to be here in the city of Beijing to open the first UK-China Business Summit of 2008. With me are not only my colleagues John Hutton, from whom you have just heard, and Digby Jones, but 250 of the most senior businessmen and women from Britain for whom the deepening links between Britain and China matter hugely. And the presence of so many of our business leaders, both Chinese and British, in this hall is powerful proof of the deepening and growing partnership between our two countries.
Today the United Kingdom is the largest European investor in China with 6,000 projects worth in total over $15 billion. London ranks as the most powerful and popular destination for Chinese companies expanding into Europe. Trade between us has doubled every five years in recent times and this all brings to fruition the hope expressed by Premier Wen five years ago of Britain becoming China’s leading European partner.
And while we all know that the next stage of global economic change brings each of our countries’ insecurities, as well as challenges and opportunities, I believe that there are great possibilities ahead for an even greater prosperity that now beckon China and Britain together. I believe we can make best use of these opportunities in greater cooperation and in sustained partnership.
Others see globalisation as a risk. I see the rise of China and the reality of globalisation not as a threat but as an opportunity, an opportunity because China is a vast potential market for British companies, an opportunity because Britain with our long record of economic stability and of openness and of enterprise is well placed to augment our reputation as a destination of choice for Chinese business and Chinese investment, and an opportunity because Britain and China can contribute together to the greater prosperity of a better world. With one and a quarter billion consumers here in China, for British companies to attract even a fraction of that Chinese market, will provide vastly more opportunities for Britain than partnerships with many other countries.
So my priority here in China is to discuss how by cooperating together we can advance the right global economic policies to help our countries meet and master change in this new world.
We may be different in many ways, but China and Britain have much to offer each other. Britain had the first industrial revolution 200 years ago and brought one of the most far reaching changes in human history; today China is in the midst of a 21st century revolution, one of the fastest economic revolutions in human history. Britain has the longest history of any nation in leadership for open trade and innovation; China is a new global leader in trade, rapidly developing new technologies that are being exported to the world. Britain is a world leader in services with strengthened advance manufacturing; China is a world leader in manufacturing, looking to develop its services sector.
With all the differences, what we have in common is a belief in enterprise, in commerce, that the products of the future can reach out far beyond our borders and bring prosperity to the whole world. And ultimately neither of us can succeed as insular nations and we see great gains on both sides from joining together as the champions of an open, flexible, inclusive globalisation.
Over the centuries Britain has had free trading relationships with every country in the world, and particularly deep relationships with America, Europe and the Commonwealth. Now looking forward into this 21st century I want Britain to reach out to China, to build that comprehensive strategic partnership and forge an even closer relationship between our two countries. The greatest benefit to China is that we, Britain, will continue to oppose protectionist forces and will remain the foremost advocates of the openness in the world economy, essential not only to China’s prosperity but to the world’s. The biggest benefit to Britain is that we strengthen our place as the destination of choice for Chinese business and Chinese investment and both of us can benefit from sharing the innovations and the expertise that characterise the best of each of our nations.
For two decades British politicians talked about going to China and opening up discussions. Now we are talking about something bigger, forging a high level dialogue, each reaching out to the other. And because with friendship comes responsibility, being a good partner also means being honest with each other when we disagree.
To set an overall framework Premier Wen and I have agreed to establish the first high level economic and financial dialogue between China and Britain and it is one that is more comprehensive and deeper than any previous dialogue between China and any European country. And working in cooperation with the Chinese government and Chinese business I hope to see by 2010 100 more Chinese inward investment projects coming to Britain, over 100 Chinese companies now listed on the London Stock Exchange, up to 100,000 Chinese students studying in Britain, 100 partnerships between Chinese and British universities and other academic institutions, 100 more scientific collaborations between Chinese and British firms with Britain benefiting from a large share of investment from China’s £1 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund.
And we will take the following immediate steps to advance the partnership. First, Premier Wen and I have signed up today to a new target for a 50% increase in bilateral trade in goods and services, rising to 60 billion by 2010, more trade between Britain and China than between Britain and Australia, or Britain and Mexico, a rising proportion of the trade of both of our countries. And building on the six new contracts we have just signed between Britain and Chinese firms, from energy to financial services, to advanced technology, I want British business to set their sights on raising their exports in goods and services to China to $16 billion by 2010, almost double that of 2006.
I want, secondly, to take steps to make the United Kingdom the prime location in Europe for inward Chinese investment. 52 Chinese companies have set up or expanded investment into the UK during the past year. There are now in total 350 mainland Chinese companies investing in the UK .. to work with and secure 100 more inward investment projects from China. I believe that the UK market offers significant advantages to commercially motivated international investors who respect the rules of our market, including market transparency. It is in all our interests that the environment within which we trade is open, and accountable, and well regulated, and we want Britain to benefit from the $200 billion of investment available through the Chinese Investment Corporation. So we should welcome the CIC setting up an office in London. We are keen to engage with China and internationally on how to ensure best practice in Sovereign Wealth Funds, particularly in transparency and corporate governance, and I welcome the statements made by Premier Wen today about this very matter.
We are, thirdly, inviting more Chinese companies to raise capital in UK markets. The aim is to double the number of Chinese listings on the London Stock Exchange in the next two years. The Chinese government has fast tracked the approval process, so during this visit I am pleased to be able to open the London Stock Exchange office in Beijing, and I am asking the Chinese government to consider removing restrictions on Chinese companies raising capital overseas so that far more of them can benefit from the advantage that listing in London can offer.
We will, fourthly, continue to work with the Chinese government to open up financial services in China and increase trade between us in the years ahead. The financial services sector is one in which Britain leads the world, so we can not only become an even greater provider of financial services to China, but offer our experience and expertise as China develops its own financial services industry.
Both Britain and China also recognise that higher skills are the key to higher levels of growth and prosperity, and that is why in design, architecture and the creative industries, from fashion to advertising, China I hope is benefiting from British expertise. And that is why we, Britain, will set up a new website offering learners and teachers of English round the world ready access to the materials, resources and qualifications they need to develop their skills. We want to encourage a million Chinese people to use that site every month and to ensure that as many new Chinese learners as possible can have English language training.
60,000 Chinese students already study in Britain, but we want to encourage more to come by expanding scholarship and work experience programmes. And I am keen to see the partnerships that are now growing between our educational institutions and institutions rise so that we can have more agreed on top of the 160 already in place. And we know that countries will only have a competitive edge in the years ahead if they develop world leadership in the most technologically intensive … based industries and services. So with our world class network of universities, research institutes and knowledge centres linked up to business, I hope we can be China’s natural partner in this endeavour.
The number of scientific collaborations between our countries has doubled and I want to kick-start the next set of collaborations. So Premier Wen and I have agreed a new £4 million programme to encourage bilateral cooperation between universities and high-tech businesses in key technologies such as healthcare. We produced together over 5,500 joint science and research papers between 2001 and 2005, more papers than were produced with any other European country, and we should work to double this over the next five years. And as China continues to move rapidly towards a more innovative and high tech economy, I urge you to match improvements in your legislative framework for intellectual property with improvements in enforcement.
Finally, as leading economies both Britain and China share a duty to deliver future prosperity and do so in a sustainable way. And there are real benefits in new businesses and new jobs from the environmental technologies of the future. So Premier Wen and I have agreed today a new UK-China partnership on climate change, including extending our collaboration on carbon capture and storage, and we will work together to build sustainable cities, providing new commercial opportunities for both Chinese and British industry and companies.
From Britain’s perspective the opportunities for future partnership seem boundless, and we will continue to make the right long term decisions to maintain our pro-business environment and secure the comparative advantages we seek. What is clear is that globalisation need not be a zero sum game where one country or one continent win and succeed only at the expense of the other. Instead by strengthening cooperation between Britain and China, this will enable both of us to make the most of the possibilities that globalisation offers. And I believe that the new global prosperity partnership that I am outlining today will help each of us - Britain and China - prosper and lead in the new world and I look forward to continued cooperation with Premier Wen and with the whole of China in advancing this agenda that is in the mutual interests of both our countries and the prosperity of the world.
Thank you very much.
(END OF TRANSCRIPT)
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