UK-China co-op is great, no major problems to make it better: Ambassador

British Ambassador to China William Ehrman said in Beijing today that the UK-China cooperation is "better than it has ever been" and will be "even better and more substantive" in the future.

He does not think there is any "major problems" in further developing the bilateral relations. The policy is built on the country, not on a particular government, he assured, adding that the cooperation between the two countries would be better than it is now and more substantive.

In terms of trade and investment, Britain's exports in goods to China grew by 19 percent last year and 36 percent over the first three months of this year. About 220 Chinese mainland companies, together with 180 HK companies, have made presence in Britain. Most of them are in the hi-tech sector.

Britain has deficit in commodities trade with China. But it does not complain against that, said Mr. Ehrman. One reason is that Britain enjoys huge surplus in service trade. Its 1 billion pound of service export to China last year was twice as much as China's service export to the UK.

In addition, UK is the largest EU investor in China. As 58 percent of Chinese export products are made by foreign-funded enterprises, British companies in China also benefit from their exports.

Mr. Ehrman reiterated Britain's support to China's market economy status. He said Britain supports free trade and has played a "positive role in trade discussions between EU and China".

He introduced some events to be initiated in the next three years in either country to make closer ties between people, including exhibitions of museums, ballets, a film about Chinese TV to be jointly made by BBC and CCTV.

There are also some joint projects that the two sides are working together on, especially scientific researches, sustainable development and energy. One of the projects he mentioned about is a coal power station in China with zero emission.

However, he noted that UK is "really concerned" about China's intellectual property rights protection. While recognizing China has appropriate laws and regulations on IP, he said UK would like to see more progress on implementation of the laws and regulations.

By People's Daily Online