Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

The companies visited China’s largest industrial and commercial centre – the Yangtze River Delta.

The group included companies from around the region – three from Cambridgeshire and one each from Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk – from a variety of sectors such as environmental monitoring, healthcare, engineering and manufacturing chemicals.

The visit began with three days in the multi-cultural metropolis of Shanghai, the largest centre in the region with a population of 18.7 million.

UK Trade & Investment’s commercial team at the British Consulate in Shanghai briefed the group on the opportunities in the region, in which GDP has been growing at rate of a 10 per cent for the past seven years.

They later attended an evening Consulate reception where they were able to network with British businesses that have already established trading bases in the area.

The rest of the trip was spent in the Jiangsu Province, which is home to more than 70 million people, making it larger than most European countries.

The area is already attracting high levels of foreign investment, and the group visited several of the new industrial parks as well as the E-MEX Electronics trade show.

International trade adviser Martin Senior who masterminded the Trade Mission said: “This was an ideal opportunity for businesses to find out more about the opportunities the world’s fastest growing economy can offer but with minimum risk.

“We helped with the logistics of the trip, so participants were able to concentrate on setting up their own meetings.

“Afterwards they were able to compare notes on their experiences with others in the group, which was very helpful.

“Bringing home more than £325,000 worth of business must be a success in anyone’s book.”

In preparation for the visit, two of the companies attended a workshop organised by UK Trade & Investment in Cambridge – ‘Working with Chinese Culture’ – which aimed to help them discover what is really going on beneath surface behaviours when working with Chinese businesses.

Geoff Brewer is general manager of Essex based company Global Elevator Components, which sources components for the elevator industry.

He said: “The workshop was an real opportunity to get closer to the culture of the Chinese businessman. I went to China to make new contacts and to build and expand on business relationships established, which have been so far only by email.

“I didn’t want to make any mistakes and the Cambridge workshop gave me the opportunity to make any mistakes here in the UK, rather than in China, where it could have affected my future business prospects.

“The China Trade Mission proved to be a very successful trip, giving me the opportunity to complete a WOFE (wholly owned foreign enterprise) while I was in Nantong in Jiangsu Province.

“If you are a small company it is good to be able to share your ideas and experiences with the other members of the mission after a long day of travelling and difficult meetings.

“It’s really helpful to be able to chew things over with other delegates. The camaraderie is an important part of the trip, because you learn from other people’s experiences.

“The meeting at the British Consulate was also very useful for connecting with other people trying to establish partnerships and joint ventures – finding the right partner is critical to establishing a WOFE or any other venture.

“Long meetings and banquets are very much part of the business process in China, so I had prepared some language flashcards and I did manage to say a few words in Mandarin at the banquet. Although it was rather unnerving, it was really worthwhile.

Delegates from Prosynth, a Suffolk-based specialist chemical manufacturer, also attended the workshop before visiting China on the trade mission.

Clare Bonnar, commercial director at Prosynth said: “Taking part in the workshop gave us the opportunity to get some practical advice, some do’s and don’ts and basic language skills.

“We are a small business hoping to expand and going on the trade mission was the most cost-effective way for us to visit China.

“Before we left the UK we had translated our business cards and a one-page summary about our business to hand out. These proved useful as we met some very impressive companies.

“Some were of more immediate interest than others due to the scale and range of production, but we have already sent projects back for these companies to evaluate. We certainly hope to build on these working relationships.

“While in China we visited several young companies, and found the traditional ways of doing business were less evident than we were expecting, as they chose a more Western approach.

“However, the workshop gave us a good grounding in the culture and history of China.”