The United Kingdom's (UK) actual investment in China also jumped over US$10 billion, a breakthrough for Sino-British economic and trade cooperation.

The trade between China and the UK was valued at US$10.3 billion in 2001 and then climbed to US$11.4 billion last year.

Statistics from the MOC report showed bilateral trade value reached US$5 billion from January to May in 2003.

China and the UK have strong traditional trade ties and the UK is one of the earliest European countries to successfully enter the Chinese market, said Wang Zhenhua, a financial analyst from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The UK has been the biggest investor in China among the European Union member countries for some years, Wang said, citing figures showing UK involvement in 3406 investment projects in China by the end of 2002, injecting US$10.7 billion.

Although the British Petroleum (China) was not so optimistic because of the "double-whammy" of dropped sales and lowered price,vice president Daniel Teo still expressed his hope of investing US$4 billion annually in China in coming years.

According to the statistics from the MOC report, the UK already participated into 137 investment projects in China and invested US$324 million from January to May this year, an increase of 29.02 percent over the same time last year.

The bilateral trade between China and the UK boomed since the latter smoothly handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, Wang pointed out.

As the biggest developing country and a traditional industrial giant, China and the UK see many cooperation opportunities in the economic and trade fields, Wang said, noting the fact that though both surpassed US$10 billion, China and the UK still had much potential to develop the bilateral trade and investment cooperation in the future.

China is the sixth and the UK is the fourth biggest economic power in the world, but the bilateral trade only values no more than 2 percent of their respective total trade volume, Wang added.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will pay a three-day official visit to China from Sunday to next Tuesday, and the issue of strengthening the Sino-British economic and trade cooperation is reportedly among the major topics that Blair would talk about with Chinese leaders.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2003)