The UK session of the 2025 “Invest in China” promotional conference, hosted by China’s Ministry of Commerce on April 4 in London, attracts more than 300 people from Chinese and British business communities. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Business leaders in the United Kingdom have expressed optimism about China's environment for foreign investors and applauded the country's commitment to opening-up, especially amid the turbulent geopolitical landscape that is challenging global trade and investment.
Many commented on the situation on Friday, during the UK session of the 2025 "Invest in China" promotional conference, which was hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce.
The event in London brought together more than 300 attendees representing corporations including HSBC, Smith & Nephew, Haleon, and AstraZeneca.
Peter Burnett, chief executive of the China-Britain Business Council, said: "Today's conference is really significant. It is a beacon of light, frankly, in an otherwise very difficult landscape for trade and investment."
Burnett said "tariffs and protectionism have gained favor" in a world "that has otherwise done so well from free and fair trade and from commercial investment decisions".
He said business had previously been "allowed to get on with what business does best, which is to meet customer needs with products that serve a purpose at a fair and reasonable price point, and the interference is not needed to control that process".
Burnett also highlighted a meeting between President Xi Jinping and representatives of the international business community in late March, which he praised as "a clear outreach" that shows China is a welcoming economy committed to its reform and opening-up policy.
"It inspires confidence for businesses to continue growing in China and to make more investment," he said. "International businesses make a net profit margin of 8 to 9 percent in China, which is probably better than they do in many, many other locations around the world, and we should be grateful for that opportunity."
Jack Perry, chairman of the 48 Group, a London-based organization dedicated to promoting Sino-British economic cooperation, echoed Burnett's comments, saying the synergy at the event was a "live demonstration" of high-quality development and high-level opening-up, terms he said were "perfectly describing what China is implementing and what forward-thinking UK businesses are ready for".
"We're doing this at a time when global winds aren't exactly common," he noted. "Recent tariffs and escalation in the United States have sent ripples through the global economy … but one nation's anxiety doesn't rewrite the global script.
"The world doesn't stop moving forward because one person wants it to go back. Long-term partnerships built over decades do not vanish with the headline, which is why this moment matters."
Nathan McNally, co-founder and CEO of P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator, a program that supports precision medicine startups in scaling up, said his on-the-ground experience suggests China is "very open and very welcoming".
The scale of the resources and capabilities there attracted him to set up an innovation center in Beijing, which began operation last year and that aims to promote China-UK cooperation in precision medicine.
"Ever since I founded P4 in 2019, China is the second-largest health tech market," he said.
Noting that "every market has slowed down", he said China has faced hurdles during its economic transformation.
"But China wants to upgrade, wants to move fast, wants to attract investment, and it has been a great, open, and welcoming place to do business," he said.
Amer Sayed, founder and CEO of Aviation Education Pathways, an aviation consultancy, told China Daily he is considering establishing a presence in China because he believes the market that connects aviation talents with training courses and industry opportunities is largely untapped.
The latest economic indicators for the first two months of the year show China started 2025 well.
Speaking at the event, Zhu Bing, director of the Ministry of Commerce's department of foreign investment administration, said retail sales of consumer goods climbed 4 percent year-on-year from January to February, and the consumer confidence index for February was 0.9 percentage points higher than in January, marking the third consecutive month of growth.
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