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30日

我最近发表了一篇关于我们金融服务团队在伦敦路演成功的博客。在伦敦活动上，我们有机会和许多经常合作的同事们建立联系，可是很多英国其他的城市我们还没有这样的机会。于是我们这次还去了曼切斯特、利物浦及爱丁堡，这些城市也是英国的金融和职业服务中心，对英国整个金融行业的贡献不斐。例如，曼切斯特专家近几年为AIM市场贡献了近50％的新上市公司。

我们在这些区域性城市举办的活动规模小了很多，共有大约20家公司参加（在伦敦我们邀请近100家公司）。但是小规模的活动也有它的好处，比如说我们在一对一讨论和茶歇时有更多的时间与公司面对面，对于了解这些公司迥然不同的需求很有帮助。在曼切斯特和利物浦的活动中，吸引中国投资始终是一个最重要的主题。考虑到这些城市在帮助外国企业在AIM上市及对伦敦的海外企业提供支持方面扮演了重要角色，这也是应该的。中国的金融企业目前还是主要选择伦敦为投资目的地，在他们形成规模以前，可能很难进入英国其他地区进行运营。我们在爱丁堡见到的企业更多的集中于咨询和管理中国投资，这也更符合他们在这一领域的优势。

但是对于那些并不是很有名气的公司来说有可能成功的在中国市场立足么？绝对可以！只要他们能够在市场竞争中确立自己专业服务的特色，同时维护好客户关系。我们遇到的与会者也表达出对于二级城市商机的兴趣，毕竟北京、上海这些市场的竞争已经十分激烈了。这些都不容易，但是我们每年举办的众多贸易代表团、研讨会和交流活动，帮助英国公司向潜在的客户做推广。我们也可以向需要的英国公司提供调研报告和安排访问。

我们已经开始考虑在2010年举办另外一个英国路演， 这一年将是英国公司在中国发展的重要一年。因为2010年上海世博会期间，我们将举办2010英国城市论坛来展示英国金融和职业服务行业。我们希望能够邀请更多的英国公司参加。 如果您需要更多详细信息请与我们保持联系。

China Financial Services on the Road: Part 2

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

Recently, I blogged about our experiences at our successful London road show. The London event allowed us to renew contact with many familiar faces that we work with on a regular basis, but this is less true of the regions and we felt it important to put this right. So we travelled to Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh to speak with companies in these regional financial and professional services centres – centres which make an important contribution to the UK’s overall offer in this sector. For example did you know that Manchester advisers have been responsible for bringing up to 50% of new listings to the AIM market in recent years?

Our events in the regions were of a much smaller scale, with around 20 firms attending our presentations (we weren’t far off 100 in London). But these smaller events allowed us the luxury of spending more time with the companies both in the one to one meetings and during the coffee breaks. This, I think, was helpful as the needs of our regional clients were quite divergent. Attracting Chinese inward investment was a significant theme running through our discussions in Manchester and Liverpool. Not surprising perhaps given their important role in bringing foreign companies onto AIM and their expertise in providing back and middle office support to London based operations. Chinese financial institutions are certainly choosing to come to London although it may still be a little while before they are of a scale that requires them to move their support operations to the regions. The Edinburgh based firms we met with seemed slightly more focussed on advising and managing outbound Chinese investment. Again not surprising given their relative strengths in this area.

But do these less well known firms from the regions have a chance to win business in China? Absolutely, providing they identify their niche by offering specialised services that set them apart from the competition, and also maintain the commitment to build up the contacts and relationships in China that are necessary to win business there. Attendees we met with also expressed strong interest in the potential opportunities in regional cities as these firms look beyond Shanghai or Beijing where the market is more competitive. None of this is easy - but we stand ready to help UK companies market themselves to potential clients through the many trade missions, seminars and networking events that we run throughout the year. We also put together bespoke research and visit programmes for those that need them.

We are already thinking about running another UK road show in 2010, which will be an important year for the UK in China. As at the 2010 Shanghai EXPO we will be showcasing UK financial and professional services expertise during the CityUK Forum in September 2010. We hope as many UK firms as possible will get involved. Do get in touch if you would like more information.