Local governments in
Britain vie with each other to
attract financing from the East,
report Cecily Liu and Zhang Chunyan
in London
On a snowy
day in late March, a Chinese
flag flew high outside the rural
Welsh county of Flintshire's local
government offices. Standing there to
welcome their Chinese guests was a
large group of locally respected
figures and government officials, including
a sheriff and a
lord.
The special occasion
marked the first visit to Flintshire
by a group of representatives from
the Chinese embassy in the United
Kingdom. Determined to attract Chinese
investment into the local economy, the
Flintshire hosts proudly showed their
guests the best of their local
specialties, from castles and cheese
to advanced manufacturing factories, offshore
wind farms and an optoelectronics
technology incubation center.
The
scenes reflect that more regional
governments in the UK are increasingly
keen to build business relationships
with China, as they realize that
the central government's efforts are
often more beneficial to the better
known cities.
"I think we
are very pragmatic in recognizing the
economic challenges of the UK, and
it's very important to recognize
the importance of growing markets like
China," said Aaron Shotton, leader of
Flintshire County Council.
The
Chinese delegation was led by Zhou
Xiaoming, minister counselor for economic
and commercial affairs at the Chinese
embassy in the UK. Zhou said he
has received several such invitations
from local governments in the UK
that are keen on attracting Chinese
investment. He has visited a number
of them, including Southampton, Leeds,
Manchester, Birmingham and Chester to
gain a better understanding of local
opportunities available to Chinese
companies.
One of the
investment opportunities Shotton's team
showed to Zhou was for Chinese
companies to set up shop at the
Deeside Enterprise Zone, an advanced
manufacturing hub designated as one of
five special areas for businesses to
receive capital investment tax allowances
in Wales last year.
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（Editor：WangXin、Gao
Yinan）
