MERSEYSIDE firms are being urged to cash in on an estimated £45bn that could pour into the UK from China in 2008.
This year’s Beijing Olympics will see China catapult itself onto the international stage and the chief executive of the Liverpool – Shanghai Partnership (LSP) says this will mean the country’s state-controlled banks will be keen to start spending their estimated £670bn of foreign currency reserves.
Mike Mielniczek told the Daily Post: “China has decided that Britain should become only the second destination after Hong Kong to be allowed to receive investors' money via so-called sovereign funds – the huge state-controlled surpluses built up by cash-rich economies from Qatar to South Korea.
“We urge Merseyside firms to seize the Chinese market with both hands in our Capital of Culture year. Shanghai is China’s economic epicentre and Liverpool is in pole position to use its special relationship to promote itself there.”
The cities of Liverpool and Shanghai became Interna-tional Sister Cities in 1999 and the LSP was established in May, 2006. With joint backing from the public and private sectors, its purpose is to try to attract inward investment from China into the Merseyside region.
Mr Mielniczek said China, like Liverpool, would be using 2008 to confound opinion about its transformation.
“If we did not fully appreciate the future influence that China will have on our future lives, then at the end of this year we will be left in little doubt,” he added.
“The Olympics will announce China on the world stage on a colossal scale. The games will confirm China’s transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the third-largest global economy.
“And Britain will feel the full power of the new superpower’s confidence with this massive investment.
“The key for us here on Merseyside is to grab China’s attention.
“Capital of Culture and our twinning with Shanghai are tremendous mechanisms for doing this.
“We need to use Liverpool’s already strong brand identity in China.
“Mersey tourism, for example, could benefit enormously, with more tourists coming out of China than any other foreign country in the next 20 years.”
tonymcdonough
