British ambassador seeks to strengthen ties with China

Dame Barbara Woodward, British ambassador to China, meets with the press in Guangzhou on Monday, as she started a tour of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Dame Barbara Woodward, Britain's ambassador to China, kicked off a three-day tour of South China's Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong on Monday, to beef up cooperation and exchanges in technology and business between the two countries.

The purpose of the visit is to better understand potential cooperations brought by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area project, Woodward said in Guangzhou on Monday.

Her trip, which started in the capital city of Guangdong province, took her to Shenzhen on Tuesday and will conclude in Hong Kong.

"The UK has very much welcomed China's high technology development," Woodward said.

"A lot of our universities have close partnerships with China. We have seen Chinese investment into the UK," she added.

Dame Barbara Woodward, British ambassador to China, meets with the press in Guangzhou on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

One of her stops in Shenzhen was China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), which is building the first nuclear plant in Britian in over 20 years together with the country's arm of France's EDF. Titled as Hinkley Point C, the station is expected to provide 7 percent of the UK's energy once in operation, and meanwhile replace the country's ageing nuclear fleet and closing coal plants.

"We are looking to developing long-term cooperation with CGN in the UK," said Woodward.

She added that as China's foreign investment law will come into effect in 2020, more opportunities are expected by British companies in China.

"The most important thing now will be for us to see how the law is implemented and practiced," she said.

Recent years have seen fruitful results in Sino-UK financial cooperation on Belt and Road Initiative. Woodward said the UK has more confidence on BRI and will encourage more and closer cooperation between the two countries.

"I'm delighted to say that UK-China relations continue to go from strength to strength in the political and government area, in the business-to-business area and in our people-to-people exchanges," she said.