A delegation of Chinese Government officials and technology companies will spend a week in the UK looking for British technology expertise for future trade and business partnership opportunities.
The 11-strong delegation, brought over by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), is in the UK as part of Enabling Innovation a UK-China partnership in ICT, facilitated by UKTI, to encourage ICT collaboration between the two countries.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown set a target of doubling UK exports to China to $10 billion by 2010. Enabling Innovation contributes to this by increasing British business awareness of Chinese trade opportunities and facilitating one-to-one meetings with senior Chinese Government and business representatives.
Last year, UK company Bunnyfoot took advantage of the initiative and has just announced a partnership through its Asian subsidiary to provide OgilvyOne in Hong Kong its usability and eye-tracking technology to evaluate marketing campaigns.
Minister for Trade, Investment and Business Lord Davies of Abersoch, who met with the Chinese delegation to highlight the UKs skill at pushing technology boundaries, said:
The UK and Chinas business, economic and cultural links have never been stronger. Through technology, such as the World Wide Web developed by British inventor Tim Berners Lee, our relationship grows by sharing news and experiences with the click of a button.
Enabling Innovation builds on our strong business relationship and encourages Chinese companies to work with companies based in the UK, one of the most productive places in the world for innovation firms.
Following the meeting, the Chinese delegation will meet with a number of British firms in London and then spend a week visiting technology clusters in Cambridge and Scotland. The UK is ranked second only to the USA for the quality of its research base.
China Academy of Telecommunications Research, MIIT President Yang Zemin said:
The ICT sector has been creating a large amount of trade and investment in both China and UK. I am convinced there's a big space for the two countries to further develop, especially in the ICT field through various kinds of cooperation.
By way of Enabling Innovation in ICT, either market players or government bodies can have opportunities to find new areas to establish constructive relations. I sincerely hope this activity may open the way to stimulate the growth of trade and investment in ICT sector between two countries. Let's take every possible action to reach this goal.
Enabling Innovation is sponsored by Amino, Arm, BT, Innovision, NDS, Sondrel, Sony Ericsson, UM and Vodafone. It gives UK companies the chance to introduce their products and services to pre-qualified Chinese technology and business partners.
Background on Bunnyfoot:
Since 1999, Bunnyfoot has grown from two people passionate about sharing their knowledge of usability to become the UKs largest user experience consultancy with offices in London, Oxford, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Reading and Hong Kong.
Bunnyfoot was the first user experience consultancy to use eye-tracking as a standard research technique for testing websites. The company now uses eye-tracking to test all forms of visual communications from print advertisements through TV, email, direct mail and mobile.
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