Monthly Roundup: U.K.-China announcements by government, partners, and other stakeholders
CBI Beijing December 2016 Highlights Alok Sharma visits Hong Kong for political and trade talks British Council’s Inspiring Women China Launches Online Platform CBBC brief First Minister of Northern Ireland on China opportunities CBBC and JD.com Sign Cooperative Agreement on IP Protection Chinese Ambassador to U.K. Attends London Premiere of Chinese Ballet European Chamber Provides Recommendations to Shanghai EU Delegation to China statement on International Human Rights Day EU SME Centre Participates in Service Summit & Internet+ Platform Conference EU SME WeChat Workshops Held in Cork, Beijing, London Foreign Secretary discusses foreign policy priorities and trade with China UK organisations sign new deals in China UK-China ties flourish at 2016 High Level People to People Dialogue UK-China Infrastructure Academy opens its doors and welcomes first students
Guy Dru Drury – Chief Representative – Beijing Office DL: 00 86 10 85253100 DF: 00 86 10 85253116 E: [email protected]
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Director-General:Carolyn Fairbairn President: Paul Drechsler CBI BEIJING: MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF U.K.-CHINA ANNOUNCEMENTS
Alok Sharma visits Hong Kong for political and trade talks Minister for Asia and the Pacific Alok Sharma will meet government leaders, businesses, legislators and civil society in an official visit to Hong Kong. During his visit Mr Sharma will address business leaders at the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, where he will discuss Britain’s ongoing role as a major trading nation. The UK exported £7.78bn of goods and services to Hong Kong in 2015, and Hong Kong is a major investor in the UK, including in the £8.4bn Greenwich Peninsula development. The Minister will meet a range of companies including Hong Kong’s rail company MTR (Mass Transit Rail) and discuss the company’s investment in UK transport, including Crossrail, as well as their new South Island Line that will open by the end of the year. (December) Read more here.
British Council’s Inspiring Women China Launches Online Platform Inspiring Women China, a British Council programme based on a successful initiative in the UK, officially launched its online platform on 4 December in Beijing. The online platform will enable this initiative to grow to scale across China with teachers able to connect with and invite volunteers in any chosen field or area to talk with students in their school or college. Inspiring Women China aims to inspire young people, girls and young women in particular, about the world of work, to raise their confidence and aspirations and enable them to make better informed choices about their career options. At the heart of this programme is a network of successful women from a broad range of backgrounds who volunteer their time to talk to students about their job, career and the path they took to get there. The launch was itself a celebration of inspiring women: Dame Barbara Woodward DCMG OBE addressed the guests, Rio Paralympics gold medal winner Susie Rodgers shared an enthralling account of her journey to win a Team GB gold medal, and Ma Feng, a graduate from Educating Girls of Rural China, founded by Ching Tien, described her path from rural Gansu to studying at Liverpool University in the UK. (December) Read more here.
CBBC brief First Minister of Northern Ireland on China opportunities On 6 December in Shanghai, Jeff Astle, Executive Director of the China-Britain Business Council, met with the Rt Hon Arlene Foster, First Minister of Northern Ireland, and Dr Malcolm McKibbin, Head of the Civil Service and Executive Office of Northern Ireland. Astle briefed the First Minister and Dr McKibbin on the development of various business sectors in China, covering opportunities for Northern Irish businesses to expand their trade and inward investment links in food and drink, education, healthcare, science and technology, tourism and the creative industries. Earlier this year, CBBC supported the city of Belfast when it sent a delegation to Shenyang in China’s north-eastern Liaoning Province and signed a city-to-city agreement. CBBC has an office in Shenyang, and the First Minister’s discussions this month included ways for Northern Ireland to build on its links in this province. (December) Read more here.
CBBC and JD.com Sign Cooperative Agreement on IP Protection JD.com (Nasdaq:JD), China’s largest e-commerce company by revenue, and the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) signed an agreement to cooperate on protecting intellectual property online. The signing was witnessed by the UK Intellectual Property Office’s chief executive, Sean Dennehey, during his official annual visit to China. Under the agreement, JD and CBBC will strengthen their existing cooperation on IP protection to fight infringement against British rights owners. JD will provide CBBC with a “green channel” whereby complaints by British companies filed through JD’s IP protection platform will receive a streamlined review process. JD will also test an advanced system to separate simple and complex infringement cases to enable faster processing. CBBC will help JD to improve its technical and legal Page 2 of 5 CBI BEIJING: MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF U.K.-CHINA ANNOUNCEMENTS processes. The agreement builds upon the work that JD and CBBC are already doing together in China to test and develop industry-wide “zero tolerance” standards for counterfeits. (December) Read more here.
Chinese Ambassador to U.K. Attends London Premiere of Chinese Ballet On the evening of 29 November, dancers of the National Ballet of China (NBC) staged The Peony Pavilion, an original ballet, at the famous Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. The Chinese Ambassador to the UK H.E. Liu Xiaoming and Madam Hu Pinghua, accompanied by Minister Counsellor of the Cultural Section Xiang Xiaowei, watched the performance together with local British audience of more than 1500. Adapted by NBC from a famous Kunqu Opera of the same name by Tang Xianzu, The Peony Pavilion features artistic combination between western classical ballet and the music elements of Kunqu Opera. Amid dreamy shadows and lights, NBC artists presented the love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei: characterised by graceful yet tenacious humanism. The perfect match of western classical dancing and eastern music elements, the modern and aesthetic stage presentation and the artists' excellent performance gave the audience a multi-dimensional, all-round manner and unforgettable experience. The audience was deeply touched by the love story between a young man and a young woman that transcended life and death. The dancing was graceful, the facial expressions of the dancers were captivating, and melodious music was sweet. The thought-provoking curtain call brought melancholic tears to eyes both young and old. Read more here.
European Chamber Provides Recommendations to Shanghai The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has published its Shanghai Position Paper 2016/2017. This second edition of the Shanghai Position Paper evaluates Shanghai’s ongoing development and provides recommendations from European business invested in the city on how it can best realise its ambition to become a global centre. Specifically, the paper discusses how Shanghai can increase its standing as a global innovation centre, foster its manufacturing competitiveness, become more important for global finance, improve its quality of life and gather the best global talent in the city. Shanghai has long held plans to develop itself into a global centre of finance, trade, commerce and shipping by 2020 – the so-called ‘four centres’ initiative. More recently it has added a further plan to become a global hub for innovation and research and development. Wanting to maintain its manufacturing competitiveness, Shanghai is striving to become a leader of China Manufacturing 2025. (December) Read more here.
EU SME Centre Participates in Service Summit & Internet+ Platform Conference 2016 SME Service Summit was successfully held in Beijing, attended by over 300 organisations including MIIT SME Bureau Director, Deputy Director, provincial SME Bureaus, industry parks, industry experts, SME associations, entrepreneurs and international organisations. The Summit was organised by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and co-hosted by Electronic Technology Information Research Institute. During the Summit, the Director of MIIT SME Bureau pointed out four important tasks planned by the Bureau, including implementing national policies to local SMEs, ensuring an interactive, connected and open platform to SMEs through Internet+ platform to improve service for SMEs, national service centres should take lead and be the examples in coordinating different sources and services, operating and managing the Internet+ platform creatively by building up lasting and healthy market mechanism. (December) Read more here.
EU SME WeChat Workshops Held in Cork, Beijing, London and Shanghai The EU SME Centre successfully organised four WeChat business training workshops in Cork, Beijing, London and Shanghai, sharing insights on the latest developments of the WeChat platform and explaining Page 3 of 5 CBI BEIJING: MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF U.K.-CHINA ANNOUNCEMENTS
how European small businesses can use WeChat more effectively to promote their brands and increase sales. During the workshops in Beijing and Shanghai, WeChat expert Matthew Brennan introduced the types of WeChat public accounts that organisations can open, many innovative ways that WeChat has been used to benefit businesses and a list of useful tools and third-party platforms related to WeChat. (December) Read more here.
EU Delegation to China statement on International Human Rights Day The UK fully supports the EU Delegation to China statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission in China. Every year on 10 December the international community celebrates the anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This anniversary is an opportunity for both the EU and China to examine their progress in protecting the human rights of all persons. In recent years, China has made considerable progress in a number of areas of human development, including improving the social and economic situation for hundreds of millions of its citizens. In the sphere of civil rights, we also see a reduction in the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty, increasing professionalisation of the judiciary as well as the introduction of China’s first national anti-domestic violence law. (December) Read more here.
Foreign Secretary discusses foreign policy priorities and trade with China The two ministers reaffirmed their commitment to working together under the Global Strategic Partnership agreed during President Xi’s State Visit to the UK in 2015. They agreed on the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Syria - welcoming yesterday’s UN Security Council Resolution - and affirmed their commitment to the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea. The talks also underlined the UK and China’s support for the Government of Afghanistan in bringing an end to the conflict there. The Foreign Secretary emphasised the UK’s openness to Chinese students, tourists and businesses as part of discussions on how free trade, open markets and rule of law will enhance economic growth. (December) Read more here.
UK organisations sign new deals in China 30 UK organisations participated in the largest ever healthcare mission to China, visiting Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The mission was timed to coincide with the UK-China High Level People to People Dialogue (P2P) in Shanghai co-chaired by Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP and Chinese Vice Premier, Liu Yandong. During the mission, Healthcare UK renewed its Memorandum of Understanding with Zhejiang Health Commission on training and innovation. (December) Read more here.
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UK-China ties flourish at 2016 High Level People to People Dialogue Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt MP and Chinese Vice Premier, Liu Yandong co-chaired the Dialogue at the Shanghai Tower. The Dialogue is a key pillar in the UK- China relationship, celebrating links between the two peoples. Policy strands for this year’s dialogue were education, science, health, tourism, sport, culture and creative industries, youth and regional cooperation, bringing together key themes of creativity, social equity and women’s equality. Headline announcements at this year’s Dialogue include the signing of the new UK-China TV Co- Production Treaty, making the UK only the second country in the world to have both film and television treaties with China; a Memorandum of Understanding on UK- China Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Innovation Collaboration; the signing of a new Host-to-Host agreement for cooperation on the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics 2022; and the British Library and National Library of China collaborating to display some of Britain’s most iconic literary treasures in China, including Shakespeare’s First Folio. (December) Read more here.
UK-China Infrastructure Academy opens its doors and welcomes first students This past month, the UK-China Infrastructure Academy opened its doors and welcomed 30 delegates onto its first course. Over the course of a week, delegates from Chinese companies and government departments will receive training on the policy, financial, planning and legal frameworks governing the UK’s infrastructure environment. Announced during the 2015 China State Visit, the Academy is a key part of the UK-China Infrastructure Alliance, a one of a kind platform designed to bring together UK and Chinese infrastructure capabilities and attract Chinese investment into UK infrastructure projects. (December) Read more here
CBI Beijing December 2016
For inputs or comments, please contact our Beijing office:
Guy Dru Drury (Chief Representative): [email protected]
Noah Shaw (Policy Analyst): [email protected]
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