British firms missing out on trade with China, ASEAN region: experts warn

British companies need to do more to build trading links with China and ASEAN countries in what is a "continent of opportunities", a seminar here Friday was told by an international trade expert.

Clive Drinkwater, regional director of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), was speaking to Xinhua after a session at the International Festival of Business (IFB) in Liverpool. He was one of the moderators at a day-long session on the UK's Place in the Asian Century.

Organised by the UK-ASEAN Business Council, China-Britain Business Council and UK India Business Council, the event brought together delegations from China and other parts of Asia as well as British companies eager to expand into ASEAN countries.

MP Richard Graham, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group, opened the event which was also address by Lai Bo, China's deputy consul general in Manchester who described the current climate as the "golden era for China-UK relations".

Drinkwater, who was based in China for 10 years, said the event in Liverpool was about the connectivity between ASEAN countries like China and Britain.

He said: "It's a continent of opportunity. Are we missing a trick by not being in China and other parts of Asia? I lived there for 10 years in the 1990s and the constant problem for me is that I don't think British companies are there enough."

"I see IFB as a good start, in the first week we have had 10,000 visitors and we are welcoming 100 overseas delegations, many of them from China," he added. Endit