Ambassador says China stands ready to work with UK

China's Ambassador to the United Kingdom Zheng Zeguang has said "we stand ready to work with the UK" on enhancing cooperation and called for the reactivation of trade and financial dialogues between the two countries.

Zheng made the remarks on Thursday in his keynote speech at the 7th China-UK Economic and Trade Forum, which was attended by more than 400 participants.

The event, which was hosted by the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK, is one of the major annual gatherings of businesspeople engaged in Sino-British trade and investment activities.

This year's forum followed a meeting between President Xi Jinping and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It was the first in-person meeting between leaders of the two nations since 2018.

During the meeting, Xi emphasized that China and the UK share extensive common interests and enjoy vast space for cooperation, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, Starmer said the UK's approach to China would be "consistent, respectful, and pragmatic" and that both sides share the responsibility to work together, according to the Prime Minister's Office.

"The two sides have agreed on the direction for bilateral relations and the actions to be taken," Zheng noted. "We stand ready to work with the UK side to follow up on the common understanding between the two leaders, and enhance dialogue, communication, and collaboration wherever possible."

The ambassador pointed out that the China-UK economic partnership has always been the "ballast" and "propeller" for China-UK relations and highlighted that China-UK annual bilateral trade, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, has surpassed 110 billion pounds ($139 billion), and that two-way investment stock is more than 130 billion pounds.

"Such cooperation has played an important role in our respective economic development," he said. "The two governments should reactivate dialogue on economy, finance, trade, and many other areas, such as the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD).

"We need to strengthen cooperation in trade and investment, clean energy, financial services, and medical services. Collaboration in artificial intelligence, climate change, education, culture, technology, and tourism should also be expanded."

The last time the EFD, the high-level exchange mechanism, was active was in 2019.

In addition to bilateral relations, Zheng also talked about China's development prospects and said the country's development is a development through reform, innovation and green growth, openness, and shared opportunities.

Because China has rolled out a series of policy measures to stabilize its market and stimulate domestic demand, Zheng said the momentum of economic recovery has strengthened, with GDP expanding 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2024.

The ambassador also noted that opening-up has been a "defining feature" of Chinese modernization and that the country's growth will continue to provide opportunities for the world.

"Over the past 45 years, China's average annual contribution to world economic growth has been 24.8 percent, ranking first in the world. The latest forecast of the IMF shows that China will continue to be the largest contributor to global growth in the next five years," he said.

"We have full confidence in China's development prospects."