More than 300 business leaders, investors and officials from China and the UK gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on last Friday for the 2025 ‘Invest in China’ Promotion Event, aimed at deepening trade ties and exploring new investment opportunities between the two countries.
The event introduced several national-level platforms through panel discussions, designed to promote inbound investment and UK-China collaboration. These included the 25th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), China’s Pilot Program for Expanding the Service Sector, the ‘Choose Development Zones’ platform, and the China-UK Health Innovation Platform. Each initiative showcased China’s commitment to high-quality growth and openness to international cooperation in emerging industries.
Zhu Bing, Director-General at China’s Ministry of Commerce, called it an ideal time to invest in China, citing growth in sectors like life sciences, green finance, AI, and new energy. He reaffirmed China’s commitment to market openness and improving the business environment for global investors.
Yu Benlin echoed this view, emphasizing the resilience of UK-China economic ties despite global uncertainties, and welcomed more British businesses to invest in China and share in its development dividends.
Peter Burnett, CEO of the China-Britain Business Council, said the London event sent a strong signal of China’s intent to stay globally connected. He noted that many international companies operating in China are already seeing solid returns, with profit margins of 8–9 percent, often higher than in other global markets.
John Edwards, Director for Investment at the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, shared this viewpoint and stated that UK-China ties are gaining fresh momentum, noting Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ January visit to Beijing which marked the restart of economic dialogue between the two countries after six years.
Jack Perry, Chairman of the 48 Group Club, highlighted UK-China collaboration in clean energy, tech, finance, and manufacturing, calling the two “natural partners” with complementary strengths. He praised China’s drive for high-level opening-up and innovation.
Regional leaders from Xiamen, Hubei, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Chongqing took the stage to promote local strengths and investment opportunities. Xiamen’s Vice Mayor Lin Zhicheng pointed to the city’s early role in China’s reform and opening-up, highlighting its strong sectors in finance, aviation, biopharma, and automotive manufacturing.
The event also included two focused panel discussions. The China-UK Health Innovation Platform, where speakers from CICC, Haleon, United Imaging, and Haihe Biopharma discussed China’s fast-growing healthcare sector and the need for cross-border collaboration, and the ‘Choose Development Zones’ session, where representatives from AstraZeneca, Suzhou Industrial Park, and others reflected on how development zones are evolving to support foreign investment with improved services and long-term policy stability.
A dedicated matchmaking area provided opportunities for UK and Chinese businesses to connect directly across sectors such as life sciences, technology, finance and consultancy, with many UK participants expressing growing confidence in the Chinese market, viewing it as an important step toward strengthening UK-China trade and investment relations in the lead up to 2025 and beyond.