Creative partnerships strengthen trade ties between UK and China

7 Dec 2017 11:49 AM

As well as strengthening collaboration between the two countries on mutually important cultural issues, commercial deals between British and Chinese companies were signed at this week’s UK-China High-Level People-to-People Dialogue (P2P).

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley met Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong at the Southbank Centre as part of a number of dialogues championing the relationship between the two nations across culture, the creative industries, sport, youth and tourism.

In the Royal Festival Hall, Minister for Creative Industries Matt Hancock and his Chinese counterpart, Vice-Minister Tong Gang, witnessed the signing of the eleven creative deals. Some of the exciting collaborations include:

China is one of the most important markets for UK creative export opportunities, with DIT aiming to double creative exports and the number of creative businesses exporting through the Creative Industries International Strategy by 2020.

Latest statistics suggest that British exports to China totalled £16.8 billion in 2016, an increase of 2.4% on the previous year, and announcements like todays show that growth is set to continue.

Last week DCMS announced the Creative Industries contributed almost £250bn to the UK economy in 2016 up 3.6 per cent year-on-year and up 29 per cent since 2010. Creative sectors now account for 14.2 per cent of the UK’s GVA.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said:

The UK’s creative industries, our culture and sport, play a vital role in shaping how we are seen around the world and boosting the economy.

And it is fantastic that in the first half of this year tourism from China increased by 47 percent, with visitors spending a record £231m.

China is a global cultural leader and I am delighted to develop future opportunities and deepen our relationship throughout this important week of events.

Minister for Investment, Mark Garnier, said:

UK exports to China are growing strongly, but it’s clear that there is still vast untapped demand for British goods and services in the Chinese market.

The opportunities for growth are there, and we will continue to cultivate relationships such as these, not only to build the UK culture of exporting, but also to help businesses of all sizes forge ties with potential buyers and investors.

Toby Evan-Jones, Business Development Director, Codemasters, said:

As the world’s largest gaming market, with a value of over $24 billion in 2016, the strategic importance of China for any video game business is clear. For a number of years, Codemasters has been actively exploring strategic alliances within China and we’ve been lucky enough to build some very strong relationships during this time, with multiple deals signed in recent months. This includes the release of two of our games on PC in China, DiRT 4 and F1 2017, in collaboration with Tencent.

This year’s P2P celebrates the opening of the V&A gallery at Design Society in Shekou, the first permanent presence of a British museum outside the UK. The event also looks forward to the display of the Terracotta Warriors for the first time in over a decade in the UK at Liverpool World Museum in 2018. Other key agreements and announcements as part of the P2P in other DCMS sectors include:

The British Library and Shanghai Library to co-operate on the exhibition “Treasures from the Literary Archive”

Notes to Editors

Other UK-Chinese creative partnerships announced at the signing ceremony include:

Both the UK and Chinese governments acknowledged successful cooperation in culture, tourism and sport since last year, including: