(MENAFN- AzerNews) British business leaders have said they hope that trade ties
between Britain and China will deepen as the two countries work
toward economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The remarks were made Wednesday during the 'Icebreakers' 2023
Chinese New Year celebration, jointly hosted by the 48 Group Club,
China Chamber of Commerce in the UK and China-Britain Business
Council.
In 1954, Jack Perry, founder of the London Export Corporation,
led a group of 48 British businessmen on a historic trade mission
to Beijing. This helped create one of the first modern-day trade
links with China, effectively breaking the U.S.-led Western embargo
on the newly-founded People's Republic of China.
The 48 men were the founders of the 48 Group Club. Their trip to
Beijing became known as the 'Icebreaking Mission,' while the club
members were called 'Icebreakers.'
Chinese Ambassador to Britain Zheng Zeguang said in his keynote
speech that a blueprint for China's development over the next five
years, and in the longer-term, was drawn up at the 20th National
Congress of the Communist Party of China last year.
'This will open up broad space for cooperation between China and
other countries, the UK included,' he said.
Lord Hammond of Runnymede, former chancellor of the Exchequer,
underlined that China is the world's second-largest economy, the
UK's sixth-largest export market, and fourth-largest trade partner
overall.
'Many of our global partners have been quietly increasing their
share of trade with China, while we've seen ours stagnate over the
pandemic period. So it's time now to roll the sleeves up and get
that market share climbing as business returns to normal,' he
said.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, chair of the China Britain Business
Council, said that as the UK emerges from a summer of political
chaos, China and the UK 'can work together to increase the
happiness, prosperity and wellbeing of our two peoples.'
'We can now look forward to an era in which sanity has returned
to Downing Street, and in which we can once again welcome hundreds
of thousands of Chinese students in the UK, we can welcome Chinese
tourists,' he added.
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