施军 英国驻华大使馆商务处中国金融服务行业主管 2009年10月7日

即使在困难的经济条件下，中国的金融和职业服务市场发展速度依然很快。英国的金融服务行业在中国也顺风顺水。在银行，保险，股票，基金，法律等方面，英国企业与其他外国企业相比，都处于领先。

然而，在中国活跃的英国企业数量却相当有限。中国一贯将市场准入门槛设得较高，使很多公司望而却步，但如今，这一状况已开始变化了。现在，我们的任务便是将这一信息广泛传达给英国公司 － 这是机遇也是挑战。

为此，英国贸易投资总署金融服务行业团队的主要成员在本周回到英国重要的四大城市，伦敦，曼彻斯特，利物浦和爱丁堡,与英国企业面对面探讨中国市场带来的机遇和挑战。

昨天我们到了伦敦。活动受欢迎程度出乎我们意料。会议厅座无虚席，观众十分专注，提问切中要害。与我们单独会面的公司中，有些对中国市场已十分熟悉，有些却一无所知，但所有人都对中国市场的机会很感兴趣，并积极向我们需求帮助，这是对我们团队的知识和专业能力的极大肯定。英国贸易投资总署在中国市场投入了巨大的资源。我们希望越来越多的公司通过我们的服务获得成功，也希望这次活动在这方面起到宣传的作用。我们将在未来跟进与公司会面取得的成果，尽最大努力确保英国公司进入中国市场时获得必要的帮助和服务。

周二下午在曼彻斯特对当地公司举行了较小规模的一对一诊断会。明天则要赶到利物浦。我们很想看看在伦敦和其他地区的金融公司对于中国市场的态度如何不同。也许本周晚些时候我会写些具体情况。

China’s financial and professional services markets continue to grow at an explosive rate, even during these challenging economic times. And the UK financial services sector is doing quite well over there.

Our Bankers, Insurers, brokers , Fund Managers and Lawyers are all amongst the leading foreign players in the sectors they operate in.

But despite this success the actual number of UK firms active in China is still quite small. China admittedly set the admittance bar quite high but this is beginning to change. We now need to spread the message to the broader UK financial and professional services community about the opportunities – and challenges- that China offers.

This is why this week we have brought back some key members of our key UKTI China Financial Services Team to personally brief UK companies in a road show visiting London, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

We visited London yesterday. The road show event exceeded our expectations. The auditorium was full, the audience attentive and their questions pertinent. Of the companies we met individually, some were more ready than others for China. But all were keen and looked to UKTI for advice and practical support to help them develop their plans. This is a gratifying vote of confidence in the knowledge and expertise of our team. UKTI has put a lot of resources into China. We want more companies to make use of us.

We very much hope this event encouraged more financial services companies to do so. We will all be following up with the companies we met to ensure that we do all we can to make this happen.

We are in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon for a much smaller "clinic" with local firms. Liverpool beckons tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if the attitudes and expectations between London and regional financial firms differ markedly. Perhaps more on that later this week

Scott Strain, Head of China Financial Services Team, UKTI Beijing