UK Minister for Trade, Richard Caborn, has returned from China and Hong Kong where he has been strengthening commercial ties.
Power generating machinery is the UK’s third largest export to China, including cast iron and cast steel hydro turbine parts, hydraulic engines and motors. This trade is expected to grow as the Chinese government endeavours to close the development gap between inland areas in the west and the more prosperous eastern coastal provinces.
UK exports to the market grew by 40% in 1999, bursting the £1B barrier and establishing the UK as the largest European investor in China.
Caborn held meetings with provincial authorities and UK businesses in Beijing, Lanzhou and Chengdu. In Hong Kong he met with the Chief Executive, the Financial Secretary, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Secretary for Industry and Commerce.