Enterprise Nation tours China with PM David Cameron

I was a bit surprised to *pick up the Daily Mail this morning and spot someone I know standing right next to the Prime Minister as he sets off on is trade delegation to China.

*Ok Chris didn’t pick up the Daily Mail, he hasn’t read a newspaper in years, but he did read the online story – Ed

Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation has wangled her way right to the front of the photo standing opposite Apprentice star and football owner Karren Brady.

Emma writes that David Cameron has three key messages to take to China:
1)   Britain wants China to be the success it can be – and it wants to be a part of that success.
2)   Britain believes that its economy is complementary to China’s and it wants the Republic to demand the services the UK excels in delivering, such as education, financial services, consumer goods and content – everything from TV show formats to computer games.
3)   There will be no stronger partner for openness than Britain – and no economy more open to China than Britain.

The PM has already met with Jack Ma and other executives from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The two oversaw the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Alibaba Group and UK Trade & Investment. The parties agreed to work together to promote the sale of British-made goods on Alibaba-owned Tmall.com, China’s largest B2C website.

There’s no doubt that the Chinese economy is not only massive – 100 times the size of the UK, but is growing 10 times as fast. The big question of course is what difference the PM’s trip to China and his entourage of 131 makes, both to larger business and to smaller retailers. We’ll look forward to hearing more from Emma when she returns from China, in the mean time you can read what she’s been up to on the Enterprise Nation blog.