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British Business (China)

Thank you, Mr. Illsley, for guiding us this morning. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Olner) for hosting our debate. As we heard, the genesis for this debate was the Industry and Parliament Trust's visit to Shanghai and Suzhou in May. We heard many contributions from hon. Members who were on that trip. The visit obviously had a profound effect on those who went. We also heard praise for the IPT. I read with pleasure the blogs, diaries and various accounts written by hon. Members during and after their trip. What struck me was the scale and speed of the changes in China, which had an impact on everyone on the trip. The group visited China shortly after the earthquake. I therefore record the Government's support for the recovery effort in Sichuan province, noting that the former Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the right hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), now the Secretary of State for Defence, visited China a few weeks ago. During his visit, he met the Government to discuss how United Kingdom companies could contribute to the huge reconstruction effort that will be required. Construction firms, architects and many others will be needed; if we can, contributing to that as a country is something that we would want to do. The underlying question today is whether the Government and the country get it. I believe that we do. Among world leaders, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is uniquely focused on the opportunities presented by globalisation. The changes in the world order that we heard about today—the rising importance of China, India and other countries—is a constant thread running through my right hon. Friend's speeches and policies, and the stance that he wants Britain to take. That is not surprising because the economic world order is changing in a big and fast way. The assumptions of the 20th century will not hold in the 21st century. All countries, including the UK, must reassess their priorities in trading and business. Although any discussion of globalisation must take as its backdrop the events of recent months and weeks, I do not want to go into detail; the Chancellor has made many statements to the House in recent weeks outlining the Government's response. However, Britain must not allow the recent financial storms to alter our stance as a globalisation optimist—as a county that believes in looking outward and making the most of trading opportunities around the world. We will not allow that to happen; we will continue to be champions of openness and flexibility, and not retreat into protectionism or economic nationalism. On one point, I gently disagree with my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Derek Wyatt). He said that we were becoming more isolationist. I believe that the events of recent weeks have proven profoundly that that is not the case. We are not becoming more isolationist; we will continue to champion openness and flexibility, always being outward-looking. In the time available, I shall respond to some of the points raised during the debate, in particular about British business opportunities with China. The first, on a political level, is how seriously we take engagement with China. There are regular high-level political meetings with China. There is an annual prime ministerial summit; this year, it took place in January between the Prime Minister and Premier Wen. As a result, a range of new trade and economic collaboration activities was announced. That includes a bilateral trade target for trade in goods and services that will reach $60 billion by 2010, which represents a 50 per cent. increase over 2007. There was agreement also on a high-level annual economic and financial dialogue between the Chancellor and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan; we will be the first European Union country to match similar existing arrangements between China and the EU and China and the United States. There is also an agreement to maximise trade and investment in the environmental sector. We are pursuing that in many ways, including through the sustainable cities initiative, which also featured during the Secretary of State's recent visit. Obviously, a host of ministerial visits took place at the time of the Beijing Olympics. However, over the past year the Secretary of State visited China three times; the Trade Minister, Lord Jones of Birmingham, visited twice; and the Lord Mayor of London visited once. Those high-level visits are an important part of our strategy. I turn to the backing for our business presence in China. UK Trade and Investment has been a key element on those visits. It includes not only politicians; often there are high-level business delegations. UKTI works to support British business in China, with the aim of delivering a measurable improvement in the business performance of UKTI's trade customers, improving two-way trade with China, dealing with the question of market access and beating the drum for British business in China. Reference was made to the numbers involved in the UKTI operation. It is the biggest such operation in the world. As my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral, South (Ben Chapman) said, its numbers have increased by 25 per cent. over recent years. Hon. Members say that they want more. Of course people want more, but that is evidence that we take the matter extremely seriously. We are putting more resources into it.