本篇博文由英国贸易投资总署亚太区司长巴里罗恩提供

我非常荣幸在上周陪同中国驻伦敦大使去英国西米德兰兹郡访问。

傅莹大使是英国电视节目“英国偶像”（The X-factor，直译为黑马）的忠实观众，这件事曾受到英国媒体广泛报道。英国还有一档类似的节目叫英国达人，直译过来是“英国有人才”，西米德兰兹郡的公司向傅莹女士充分证明了这一点，世界一流的制造技术，零排放车辆，可替代能源再生，撞击吸收系统。

火车，电梯等的缓冲器的制造技术甚至让我惊叹。这些产品需要极其复杂的工程设计，同时又起着至关重要的作用。比如，世界上绝大多数高层建筑都会在电梯轴底部使用Oleo的缓冲器（如果我乘坐的电梯从80层掉下来，知道这点很有帮助）。这就英国科技在全球价值链中扮演重要角色的绝好证明，而且只是英国先进技术系统的一部分，有可能不被注意到，但它发挥着关键作用，同时技术先进且工艺精良。

Oleo缓冲器的应用成品在中国工厂中生产，Converteam的变电器在中国的风力涡轮发电机，这些都让我认识到中英公司合作的不断深化－ 同时制造，技术分享，合作努力向全球用户提供世界级的技术解决方案。

在一间工厂参观时，傅莹大使对她喝到的绿茶赞不绝口。工厂工作人员告诉她，这茶是中国同事送到。这不正是全球价值链的绝好体现吗 －中国茶，产自中国，砌在英国，喝在西米德兰兹郡，而我们细细品茶的此时此地，顶尖的科技正在源源不断地输送到中国，生产出高质量产品供应到全球市场。

英国大有人才，中国也大有人才，更绝的是，中英这对合作伙伴正以黑马姿态对全球商业成功提供有力支持。

From the X-Factor to Britain's Got Talent

Barry Lowen, Director East Asia, UK Trade & Investment

I had the pleasure last week of accompanying the Chinese Ambassador in London to the West Midlands region of the UK.

Mme Fu Ying has been celebrated in the press for her knowledge of the British TV show, The X-factor. The companies during the visit showed her, to echo the title of another TV show, that Britain's Got Talent - impressive examples of world-class manufacturing expertise, eg in zero emission vehicles, alternative energy generation, and impact absorption systems.

The last was not something I'd thought about - buffers for trains, lifts etc. But the product requires exceptionally technically complex engineering and is surprisingly important. For example, the vast majority of very tall buildings in the world have Oleo buffers at the bottom of their lift shafts (which is good to know, if ever I'm in a lift free-falling 80 storeys). It's an example of the part played in global value chains by much of British advanced technology - it's part of a bigger system, perhaps unseen, but key, advanced and high quality.

Hearing about Oleo's buffers being incorporated into completed products at their Chinese factory, and Converteam's power converters being used in Chinese wind-turbines also illustrated for me the growing partnership between the UK and China - manufacturing in both countries, sharing technological skill and joining commercial efforts to develop world-beating solutions for global customers.

Sitting in one factory during the visit, the Ambassador also complimented her hosts on the quality of the Chinese green tea they brewed for her. They said that they got it from colleagues at their factory in China. That struck me as a great illustration of the global value chain - Chinese tea, sourced in China, brewed and drunk at a factory in the West Midlands, which is producing technology to be incorporated in China in to products for the global market.

Britain's got talent, China's got talent, and, at its best, the partnership between them is an X-factor underpinning global success.