British PM should offer more than big business during China visit

By Jon Geldart

"A week is a long time in politics" said British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1964. For Mrs. Theresa May the last 7 days must seem like an eternity as she attended Davos, tries to negotiate a challenging separation with Europe and had to listen to Mr. Trump imply that he could negotiate a better Brexit deal than she can. She then prepared to travel to Beijing, Shanghai and allegedly Wuhan as well, over the next few days in an apparently nightmarish mix of misunderstanding, miscommunication and messy organization. It's not easy being the leader of any country, let alone one which is in the middle of a delicate divorce from its oldest and most established trading block in the full glare of the cynical and unrelentingly critical Western media. So a few days in China should provide, I hope, a welcome antidote of calm and culturally divergent experience where the political map and direction of travel is a little longer term than her average week of deploying tactical survival strategies in Westminster.

Sitting, as I do, with a somewhat arms length, but sufficiently close, perspective of both the visit and the political landscape around it in both countries, I am struck by one major question. What can Britain actually offer China at this important point in history? 

British Prime Minister Theresa May (C) and her husband Philip May (2-L) pose for a photograph with a delegation of business leaders after arriving in Wuhan, China, 31 January 2018. [Photo: dfic.cn]

We should at the very least be supporting President Xi's Belt and Road Initiative, as the 'last station on the line' before the Atlantic Ocean, and I'm hopeful that common sense will prevail here.  Of course we could roll out the usual suspects of big business and the representatives of undoubted strength from the City of London. These financial heavyweights I'm sure would aim to encourage investment and the use of the world's most prestigious capital market as Chinese businesses search for a stable financial springboard to the rest of Europe and the world. However, Mrs. May has the opportunity to offer a suite of skills and expertise to be found in British industry which run far beyond the Square Mile of central London. These skills exist in the businesses which are the driver of the British economy. Known as the Middle Market they are not the biggest organizations across the UK but they provide the solid core of employment and the powerhouse of wealth creation for the country. They are also owned and managed by the most innovative, agile, brightest and best leaders of entrepreneurial Britain. 

Imagine for a moment the challenges currently facing China; the alleviation of poverty, the war on pollution and the eradication of corruption. Consider too the challenge of delivering the China Dream as the middle of the century arrives and the goal of China as a middle income country draws closer. An aging population and the need to derive higher levels of productivity from a shrinking younger workforce, are undoubtedly monumental problems of increased need for age and health care improvement, pensions and insurance management, increased automation and so much more. 

How can this small island teetering on the Western edge of Europe actually help the leviathan of China?

Actually, I would suggest, in a number of ways. Certainly I suggest we should offer what we might have without, like so many other Western leaders visiting China, expecting anything in return, at least not in the short term.

From an in depth understanding of how to implement central government policy at the front line of local delivery, to how we manage the miracle of our National Health Service, which is still free to all and devoid of corruption. The British government might do well to open its kimono of expertise and experience to China. 

Of course there is the undoubted opportunity to attract thoughtful and long term Chinese investment into a Britain which is a safe harbour of stable currency and measured growth. That investment doesn't have to gravitate only to the London property market but there are many other excellent opportunities elsewhere. As Chairman of the Institute of Directors for the largest 'Province' in the UK (Yorkshire and Humber) I'd suggest the 'Northern Powerhouse' from Manchester in the West, to Leeds and Hull in the East, offers a suite of interesting, new and long term investment platforms. 

In addition our education establishments are some of the best in the world with AI, high tech engineering and Medi-tec as well as environmental, and specifically marine, management sitting in the minds of professors from Aberdeen and St Andrews to Leeds and Manchester as well as Oxford, Cambridge and London colleges. Britain has world beating expertise in Media, Fashion, Design, Formula 1 and other high tech automotive engineering, including electric and hybrid technologies. I could go on; Search and Rescue, the cleaning of contaminated land and so much more.

We are rightly proud of our systems of governance and risk management in the capital markets but we also have great expertise and strength in flexible management and a long established ability to cope with the inevitable changes and uncertainty of business. I hope Mrs. May will allow the full range of scalable expertise and opportunity from Britain to be offered. It would be a potent mix of large corporates, from the likes of BP and Rolls Royce to family business such as Barbour and Taylors of Harrogate, to blend with our long history and values of calm and probity. All that we have will not be applicable to Chinese needs but maybe some mix of British business pragmatism with Chinese characteristics might be of interest?

(Jon Geldart is Executive Director - Greater China at Grant Thornton International Ltd and UK Institute of Directors Regional Chairman for Yorkshire and Humber.)