China and Britain pledged themselves to be "investment partners" Saturday at an investment fair in Xiamen, coastal city in east China's Fujian Province.
Long Yongtu, chief negotiator of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), announced that China and Britain officially set up the China-UK Investment Partnership at a seminar held during the Fifth China International Investment and Trade Fair (CIFIT) here.
Representatives of MOFTEC, Invest.UK, the China-Britain Business Council and the British Chamber of Commerce in China signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which indicates the trade and investment relationship between China and Britain has entered a new stage.
The signatories vowed to ensure that the China-UK investment partnership will provide a forum for discussing and effectively dealing with difficulties that might occur in the investment process, and to provide access to British companies in China's western region development movement.
The MOU says that China has made significant achievements in absorbing foreign investment, which has been serving as an essential factor accelerating China's economic development. Meanwhile, Britain is currently the biggest European investor in China and one of the most successful countries in attracting foreign capital. China and Britain share strong interest in exchanging experiences.
Long Yongtu said the establishment of such a partnership is based on the understanding of the role foreign investment plays in the national economy.
Lord Charles Powell, president of the China-Britain Business Council, said that despite the economic slowdown in many parts of the world, trade and business links between Britain and China are growing rapidly, and have reached record levels.
Such a partnership will give the two sides formal and regular opportunities to discuss in detail issues concerning the foreign investment environment in China and the difficulties which businesses encounter.
"It is a partnership because we believe that, through dialogue, we should be able to help each other more effectively," Lord Powell said.
William Pedder, chief executive of Invest.UK, said that the ongoing CIFIT, which encourages two-way investment, is the right location and time to announce a new partnership to promote investment.
This is the first negotiation mechanism established between China and a European Union country. China has already set up similar mechanisms with the Republic of Korea and Japan.
MOFTEC statistics indicate Britain has become China's second- largest trade partner in Europe, behind Germany. By the end of 2000, British-invested projects in China amounted to 2,803, with a contracted investment of 16.89 billion U.S. dollars-worth. The utilized UK investment reached 8.78 billion U.S. dollars.
The Sino-British trade volume hit a record 9.9 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 25.8 percent over the previous year.
( People's Daily 09/09/2001)
