1 Introduction
Inquiry into Trade and Investment
1. On 24 November 2011, we announced our inquiry
into Trade and Investment. That inquiry focused on the role of
Government both in supporting UK firms in expanding their trade
overseas and in attracting foreign investment into the United
Kingdom. Our main Report on this inquiry, Rebalancing the Economy:
Trade and Investment was published on Monday 11 July.[1]
2. As part of that inquiry we considered China
as a case study because it was a country the Government had identified
as a key export priority. Not only has the importance of the China
market to the UK been highlighted in a number of key BIS publications—for
example the Plan for Growth and the Trade White Paper,[2]
but also a significant number of Ministers have visited China
to build on existing bilateral relations.[3]
3. Such was the concentration on China, we decided
to see, at first hand, the work of the Government and its lead
agency UKTI, in this important market. We also wanted the opportunity
to talk to UK companies based in China, and Chinese companies
looking to invest in the UK, about their experience and the support
they received. Constraints on time and costs restricted the visit
to two centres, Beijing and Shanghai. While it would have been
helpful to visit a tertiary city in China, these two centres offered
the opportunity to be appraised of both the political and economic
situation, and allowed us to meet with a wide range of representatives
from both business and politics.
4. We took the view that given the importance
of this subject, and the need to obtain maximum value from our
time in China, that we would report separately on our visit to
China and to set out the key messages we received. While some
of the issues we raise are already well-known, we believe it important
to set them out in this Report, so that the Department can address
them, in detail, in its Response. The importance of China to the
UK economy, and the Government's policies to encourage greater
bilateral trade, means that this is an area which we intend to
monitor during the course of this Parliament.
5. We started the process by holding an evidence
session on China. Our first panel—Stephen Phillips, Chief
Executive, China-Britain Business Council, Dr Kerry Brown, Head
of Asia Programme, Chatham House, and Professor Peter Nolan, Cambridge
University—provided us with valuable insights into the UK's
economic and political relationship with China, while our second
panel—Simon Carter, fashion designer, Joan Turley, author,
and Steve Young, Head of Business Development and Sales, Surrey
Satellite Technology Ltd—provided us with their experience
of doing business in China. Their oral evidence and accompanying
written evidence was published in our main Report.
1 Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Seventh
Report of Session 2010-12, Rebalancing the Economy: Trade and
Investment, HC 735 Back
2
These documents can be found at www.bis.gov.uk Back
3
We set out these visits in more detail in paragraphs 53 to 60. Back
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