How significant is the China Development Forum in Beijing for global business leaders?

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chair of the China-Britain Business Council.

Transcript

00:00Sir Sherrod Cooper-Coles is the chair of the China-Britain Business Council and he's been

00:05attending the forum.

00:07The main sense is a feeling that we've all got to stick together. We've got economic

00:14challenges in most of our countries. We all want growth. But we've also got geopolitical

00:22headwinds and, if I'm honest, the elephant in the room over the past two days has been

00:29elsewhere. You can imagine where. And we've all been talking about the way we need to preserve

00:36globalization. We need to preserve the drive towards net zero. We need to preserve

00:43collaboration on innovation. We need to keep global trade flowing. So, honestly, it's been

00:51a very important meeting at a very important time.

00:55And although there are slightly fewer Americans than in previous years,

01:00there are still plenty of Americans here. And, you know, I salute those who've attended.

01:07And you mentioned that there are American CEOs as well as British ones there,

01:11more than 80 multinational chief executives attending the forum.

01:16What do you think that says about the level of confidence in China?

01:20Well, I think it says that China matters. It matters in terms of size. You know, a market

01:27of 800 million middle-class consumers, the producer of 80% of the world's steel, etc., etc.

01:37I could reel out the numbers. But it also, I think, is an important sort of geopolitical signal

01:45that most of the world understands and believes that if you want to prosper in today's world,

01:52you need to engage with China. And you need a sort of grown-up, confident approach in which,

01:57of course, you don't always agree about everything. But you do work together to

02:03maximize the areas of mutual advantage. When it comes to the specifics, Beijing

02:08once again pledging to improve the business environment and remove investment restrictions

02:14for foreign businesses. Are those really being put in place? Are there tangible improvements

02:19for foreign businesses? Or are there still concerns about that?

02:23Well, the answer is, honestly, Paul, both. There are real improvements for foreign investors,

02:30for foreigners seeking to do business in China. But as always, there's more to be done.

02:36I mean, what struck me and I said to a colleague in the British delegation was the

02:42sort of messages from Premier Li Cheng about attracting foreign investment. Very similar to

02:50the sorts of messages we expect the British Chancellor of the Exchequer to be delivering

02:56when she gets up in the House of Commons on Wednesday. And that, in a way, shows the alignment

03:03now between the new British government and China that we both want growth. We want to work together.

03:12We have complementary economies. Britain specializes in financial and professional

03:18services, in pharmaceuticals, in luxury goods, in all sorts of niche products. And China

03:27does the range, but it also has the technologies of the future.

03:31US tariffs, Chinese tariffs, an escalating trade war. How can the businesses that you represent,

03:37that you work with, British businesses more broadly, position themselves and mitigate

03:42an escalating trade war between China and the United States?

03:46It was top of the agenda for everyone, but it wasn't the sort of thing people wanted to talk

03:51about in public sessions. But it was the sort of thing everyone wanted to talk about in the margins

03:59of something like the China Development Forum. And that's the value of a meeting like this with

04:04CEOs from around the world, with academics and others. And we were able to compare notes.

04:11Nobody wanted to advertise in front of everyone, let alone in front of the Americans, you know,

04:19what they might do to mitigate the damage. But everyone was clear that tariffs on this sort of

04:25scale are damaging. And they're not only damaging to the countries that are targeted. In the end,

04:32the view, particularly among many in the American or all in the American delegation,

04:38was that they're damaging to America.

Category

Transcript

Recommended