UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox (pictured above) visited Shenzhen on Thursday 4 January to speak with Chinese government officials and business leaders about the GREAT Festival of Innovation, which takes place in Hong Kong this March.
An initiative of the UK Department of International Trade, the GREAT Festival of Innovation aims to showcase the very best of British and Asian innovation to explore how we will learn, live, work and play in the future. Through a series of talks, panels and interactive workshops over its four days, the GREAT Festival of Innovation will bring together some of the world’s brightest minds, business leaders and policy makers to provide a unique platform to share cutting-edge ideas across industry and sector, and to create meaningful partnerships to drive the future of free trade and prosperity between the UK, Hong Kong and the region. China is the UK’s fifth largest trading partner globally, with trade between the two countries worth £59.1 billion (based on 2016 figures).
“China as a world-leading economy…is an important market for British companies as we look beyond the boundaries of Europe to build independent trading relationships with the rest of the world,” said Fox at the Southern China launch event. “The Great Festival of Innovation will bring together the best entrepreneurs and the most advanced technology across the UK and Asia to explore how we will work, live, play and learn in the future. As global markets evolve, it will be crucial to embrace the change that comes with it.”
The Hong Kong edition of the GREAT Festival of Innovation represents the third of its kind, following the success of the GREAT Festivals of Creativity in Istanbul (2014) and Shanghai (2015). Part of a wider UK government initiative to showcase the best of Britain to the world, the Hong Kong event arrives at a crucial time for both the UK and China, with the UK renegotiating its global outlook and China policymakers increasingly turning to innovation to address some of the vastly complex social, environmental and infrastructural challenges of a rapidly growing country.
The GREAT Festival of Innovation takes place in Hong Kong from 21-24 March 2018. For more information, see events.trade.gov.uk
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