China, Britain to benefit further from "golden era" of bilateral relations: experts

China and Britain can benefit further from a "golden era" in their bilateral relations, several experts have said.

Bilateral relations between the two countries have flourished with frequent high-level exchanges, fruitful economic cooperation, wider people-to-people exchanges, and new opportunities of cooperation in innovation, experts say.

Hugh McDaniel, managing director of China Brampton Ltd, said "the impact of China on the UK business community is regarded as very positive and most UK business people would like to do more business with Chinese business people."

McDaniel said there was excitement within the British business community about China's outbound policies, and many British business people were planning to work closely with Chinese counterparts to explore opportunities in Commonwealth countries, where UK has influence.

H-J Colston, Joint CEO of Chopsticks Club, said China's economic development had entered a new phase and many of China's highly successful enterprises were ambitious to become brands on a global scale.

"With the UK's strengths in creative industries, financial markets, technical start-ups, education, made-in-Britain cars, beautiful tourist spots, there is plenty to attract Chinese investment. Britain and its SME(small and medium enterprise) economy would benefit from joint collaboration and development(with China)," Colston noted.

Jonathan Geldart, Executive Director of Markets Development at Grant Thornton International Ltd, sees a "real hunger for understanding" as economic ties between Britain and China strengthen.

"British business needs real, tangible and practical advice on how to work and do deals with their similar sized Chinese business counterparts," said Geldart.

Rupert Gather, Executive Chairman of InvestUK Ltd, believes Chinese students in Britain can play an important role in facilitating mutual understanding in the business sector.

"We hope they will retain their links with the UK and better still, remain here, and form the next generation of Chinese-UK business leaders securing the enduring value to both China and UK," said Gather.

"They are a real sign of how our two peoples and cultures can work together in many areas to build new businesses of global importance," Gather added.

Xiong Yu, chair of technology and operations management at Northumbria University, suggested China and Britain tap into potential of innovation and seek win-win results.

As a key research and developing centre of world's high-tech and high value-added industries, Britain has a comparatively small market. Sparkling creations often generate only meager returns, according to Xiong, who believes that British companies are often significantly undervalued.

"UK needs to find a better destination for its innovation so it can earn the value it deserves. That destination, obviously, should be China," said Xiong.

"UK can benefit from Chinese capital and the Chinese market. In this case, R&D, usually a term for combined research and development, should be split between the two countries, with research benefitting from UK innovation and development from the Chinese industrial market," Xiong noted. Endit