Brown builds Anglo-Chinese ties
British exports to China, the world’ fastest growing economy, could quadruple by the end of the decade, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has said.
In Beijing, on the first day of his three-day visit to the world’s most populous nation, Mr Brown, cementing Anglo-Sino relations, underscored the need to promote science and technology and boost key exports such as educational services, including the number of Chinese students entering British universities.
Mr Brown met Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, finance counterpart Jin Renqing and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Monday.
The meetings covered China’s relationship with the European Union, arms exports, international finance cooperation and poverty eradication.
Speaking after the gathering, Mr Brown said: “In a modern open economy, capital account liberalisation is the way forward but so that it is not destabilising it will be best achieved in a sequenced way.
“While others may wish to see China and globalisation as a threat, I see the rise of China and the new stage of globalisation not as a threat but as an opportunity.
“An opportunity because China is a huge market with huge opportunities for British companies, a dynamic market which challenges Britain to be equipped for the new world and to respond.”
Britain spent £6 billion in China since 2003.
Speaking to schoolchildren in the capital, Mr Brown said education would be “one of our biggest export earners” in the next few years.
The foreign student market is valued at £10 billion.
Mr Brown dismissed suggestions the influx of foreign students would deprive British youngsters of university places.
“We have got to be in the lead in making provision for these educational service, not at the expense of British students, but in addition to the larger number of British students,” he said.
Mr Brown is expected to visit Shanghai, Shenzen and the Hong Kong special administrative region before returning to London on Wednesday.
