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The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Britain's leading employers' organization, is open for business in China next week, according to senior CBI official Saturday.
The opening will be formally when Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown visits the CBI's first office in Asia at Beijing British Center.
Announcing the arrival of CBI China, CBI Director-General Sir Digby Jones said, "It is vital that the greatest challenges facing the UK -- globalization and the rapidly rising economies of China and the Far East -- are recognized as an opportunity."
"The chance to do business with one of the fastest expanding trading nations in the world is there to be taken," Jones said.
The CBI Beijing office will contribute to discussions on major policy, legislative and regulatory developments in China and will relay information back to business in the UK to better inform their strategies for the region, Jones said.
While the world doubles its trade every decade, China doubles its trade every three years; and while the UK economy is currently growing at about 2 percent China's grows by about 10 percent each year, Jones said.
Jones said that by 2020, the world's favorite holiday destination could be China. But only one percent of UK trade is currently with China and while the UK imports nearly 6 billion pounds (about US$10 billion) of Chinese goods it only exports around 1 billion pounds (about US$1.78 billion), he said.
CBI's Chief Representative in China will be Guy Dru Drury who has worked for much of his career in both China and the UK.
(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2005)
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