the world

By James McGuire, Consul Trade and Investment, British Consulate-General Guangzhou

Since the opening up of China in 1978, foreign investment has propelled startling economic growth, which has been double digit from the past 20 years. Much of this investment came via Hong Kong, which took advantage of China’s relatively cheap, educated and fl exible workforce to create a huge manufacturing belt. The Pearl River Delta (named after the Pearl

River which dominates the landscape) became known as the ‘Workshop of the World’ as pretty much everything you can think of came to be manufactured there.

Richest province in China

Guangdong, China’s southernmost province, where the British Consulate-General is based, became the richest province in China on this massive industrial growth and migrant workers fl ooded to the region from China’s poorer western provinces to cities like Shenzhen, Donguan, Foshan, and Guangzhou in search of work. Shenzhen, directly across the border from Hong Kong, grew from a tiny fi shing village of 12,000 in 1978 to a mega-mega polis of over 12 million inhabitants in under 30 years!

Environmental costs

But all this wealth came with a cost; energy consumption, air, water and soil quality in Guangdong is among the worst in the world and now threatens the continuation of the economic progress the province is famous for. The Guangdong provincial government recognises this and has implemented measures to discourage polluting manufacturing and

James McGuire speaking at a climate change projects offi ce seminar in January 2010

replace them with higher value and cleaner manufacturing and service sectors.

Environmental opportunities

This corresponds well to UK capability and we at UKTI Guangzhou have been active in promoting UK business interests. There are opportunities across the board for high technology or niche products and services including energy reduction, water treatment, monitoring, air quality, low carbon construction.

UKTI activity

We do this through many activities such as organising seminars, business to business events, briefi ngs, and calls upon important potential clients for UK businesses. Recent events we have undertaken have been: • Seminars with visiting UK delegations showcasing UK environmental technologies and services such as Carbon Abatement technologies, Climate Change and CDM, and cleaner production in ceramics, one of the pillar industries in Foshan, South China.

• Research into cleaner manufacturing opportunities in South China and Hong Kong via a UKTI Overseas Attachment Training Scheme (OATS) followed by roadshows in the UK in March 2010 to broadcast the fi ndings and a visit to market planned for October 2010.

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