UK Actual Investment in China Jumps US$10bn Since 1998

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 21, 2003

UK Actual Investment in China Jumps US$10bn Since 1998

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Sino-British trade value has doubled from 5 billion US dollars to 10 billion US dollars in the past five years since the two countries established a cooperative partnership in 1998, a report from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed here Sunday.

The United Kingdom's (UK) actual investment in China also jumped over 10 billion US dollars, a breakthrough for Sino-Britisheconomic and trade cooperation.

The trade between China and the UK was valued at 10.3 billion US dollars in 2001 and then climbed to 11.4 billion dollars last year.

Statistics from the MOC report showed bilateral trade value reached 5 billion US dollars from January to May in 2003.

China and the UK have strong traditional trade ties and the UK is one of the earliest European countries to successfully enter the Chinese market, said Wang Zhenhua, a financial analyst from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The UK has been the biggest investor in China among the European Union member countries for some years, Wang said, citing figures showing UK involvement in 3406 investment projects in China by the end of 2002, injecting 10.7 billion US dollars.

Although the British Petroleum (China) was not so optimistic because of the "double-whammy" of dropped sales and lowered price,vice president Daniel Teo still expressed his hope of investing 4 billion US dollars annually in China in coming years.

According to the statistics from the MOC report, the UK alreadyparticipated into 137 investment projects in China and invested 324 million US dollars from January to May this year, an increase of 29.02 percent over the same time last year.

The bilateral trade between China and the UK boomed since the latter smoothly handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, Wang pointed out.

As the biggest developing country and a traditional industrial giant, China and the UK see many cooperation opportunities in the economic and trade fields, Wang said, noting the fact that though both surpassed 10 billion US dollars, China and the UK still had much potential to develop the bilateral trade and investment cooperation in the future.

China is the sixth and the UK is the fourth biggest economic power in the world, but the bilateral trade only values no more than 2 percent of their respective total trade volume, Wang added.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will pay a three-day officialvisit to China from Sunday to next Tuesday, and the issue of strengthening the Sino-British economic and trade cooperation is reportedly among the major topics that Blair would talk about withChinese leaders.

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