Experts highlight opportunities in 3rd party markets for British, Chinese

LONDON - A senior British Treasury official on Wednesday reiterated the importance his country attaches to trade and economic ties with China.

Britain remained confident of its economic prospect and is willing to work closely with all its long-term trade partners with China included, said Simon Kirby, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, at a briefing on the government's annual autumn financial statement.

With the celebration of the eighth China-Britain Economic and Financial Dialogue in London on Nov 10, the golden era of the bilateral relations has been reaffirmed by British government with the commitment to further developing trade ties.

Britain remained "open for business" and committed to maintain the "Golden Era" relations with China, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Nov 9 during her meeting with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai in London.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said in a statement that the China-Britain ties will continue to deepen with complementary bilateral trade ties, adding that China and Britain will remain natural partners and build on this relationship.

Besides the further development of the bilateral ties, some experts told Xinhua that they also believed that China and Britain should take the opportunity of "golden era" to strengthen their economic and financial cooperation in third party markets, which is important for the two countries and world economic recovery.

Professor Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London, said in an interview with Xinhua that there are opportunities for Chinese companies to work with British companies in third party markets because they are quite complementary.

Brown said the two countries will see a lot more of this sort of cooperation, particularly in Africa and in the Middle East in the future where China knows it needs partnerships.

"I think the UK would bring analysis and local knowledge to the table, and the fact that it has got very very internationalized companies that have been out foraging overseas for a long long time. So there is a lot of knowledge," said the professor.

"China would bring capital to the table, and the ability to get things done, some of it new technology; and the fact that it is politically welcomed in a lot of these places, whereas the UK may have more political inhibitions in the way it operates," he said.

Stephen Perry, chairman of the 48 Group Club in Britain, highlights China's Belt and Road Initiative and believed the two countries could cooperate more in the markets along this road.

"The Chinese imagination demonstrated by Belt and Road Initiative is exactly what the world needs to get out of QE and dull growth. By opening a whole new region to major development many nations can experience development, and many nations invest in and sell to the new areas," he said.

He pointed out that Britain has a lot of experience of dealing in many unusual economies in various stages of development, in which the two countries can benefit from it in jointly developing third party markets.

"If the UK decides to prioritize the new areas of Belt and Road Initiative and Africa, then China and the UK can, indeed, have a golden era ahead. If we limit ourselves to bilateral trade and investment there will be a silver era. But it is the addition of third party work that heralds a golden era," he said.

Keith Bennett, vice chairman of the 48 Group Club, also considers that China and Britain have great and increasing potential to cooperate in third markets, as this potential and possibility rests on a number of solid foundations.

China is now a major player in the global economy and Chinese companies, both state and private, are being encouraged by the government to go out. In many cases, they are looking to investing and doing business in countries, territories, industries and economic sectors where Britain has a long-standing presence, as well as deep connections and experience, sometimes dating back centuries, he said.

Bennett told Xinhua that Chinese and British companies have already worked well together in some of Africa, which proves that the two countries will have more potential in further advancing cooperation in other third party markets.

"I have seen this for myself, for example when I accompanied a Chinese business delegation to South Sudan four years ago. The skills, possibilities and synergies of British and Chinese enterprises are therefore highly complementary not only in a bilateral sense but also for third markets and can deliver benefits not only to each other but also to local enterprises, people and economies," he said.

Professor Xiong Yu, chair of technology and operations management of Newcastle business school at Northumbria university, believed that the stable partnership between the two countries is particularly important in the current volatile international environment.

Xiong said Britain's Northern Powerhouse strategy will form a win-win relationship with China's Belt and Road Initiative in the "golden era" of China-Britain relationship, which will not only benefit the two countries, but also leave positive impact on the whole world.

"The close cooperation between China and Britain will go beyond the scope of the two countries to influence the world. The two countries will bring other countries of the same values to participate actively in this cooperation mechanism and form a sound platform for economic and trade cooperation in third party markets," he said.