UKTI mission targets Chinese opportunities

To help foster relations with China and with Chinese companies, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) launched 'Enabling Innovation – UK China partnership in ICT' in October 2008, with support from leading companies, including BT, Vodafone, Sony Ericsson and ARM. To date, the initiative has helped more than 100 UK companies to better understand the market opportunities and potential technology collaborations with top Chinese multinationals, while introducing them to senior industry decision makers in China that they would otherwise find difficult or impossible to access. "With this year marking the 30th anniversary of China's 'Reform and Opening' plan," said Yang Zemin, president of the China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR), "we are celebrating significant achievements over three decades of remarkable development in China, especially in the communications industry. British companies have played an active role in the development of China's telecom market with strategic bilateral partnerships, showing strong performances and successful British companies introducing sound business models to our industry." Now, UKTI is taking advantage of the Shanghai World Expo to launch three missions to China. Each mission will include seminars and panel sessions; visits to key Chinese companies; one to one meetings; and table top exhibitions. World Expo is a large scale, global non commercial event. Expo aims to promote the exchange of ideas and development of the world economy, culture, science and technology, to allow exhibitors to publicise and display their achievements and improve international relationships. As such, World Expo is regarded as the Olympic Games of the economy, science and technology. The Shanghai World Expo, scheduled to run until the end of October 2010, is themed 'Better City, Better Life'. The three UKTI missions – which take place from 5 to 9 July – address: consumer electronics and electronics design; communications and M2M; and e-health and telemedicine. The Consumer Electronics & Electronic Design mission will visit Beijing, Chengdu, Qingdao and Shanghai. The five day mission starts with a meeting with the chairman and vice chairman of the China Electronics Association (CEA), followed by an Enabling Innovation seminar exploring partnering with the CEA and a table top innovation showcase. Participants then fly to Chengdu, where a seminar brings them into contact with companies from the Chengdu IC design centre. One to one meetings will be followed by a reception with selected Chinese design engineers and manufacturers. The third day sees the mission move to Qingdao, where the group visits Haier/Hisense. A further Enabling Innovation seminar in Qingdao will be followed by one to one meetings with local companies. Finally, the mission moves to Shanghai, where the group meets the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission. Three panel discussions are scheduled, targeted at operators, device manufacturers and electronic designers. The mission concludes with a table top Innovation Showcase and one to one meetings. The communications and M2M mission starts in Beijing by meeting with CATR to discuss market opportunities. The next stage, in Guangzhou, sees meetings with the Guangzhou 3G Alliance, the Telecom Research Institute and with Huawei. In Wuxi, an Innovation Seminar features the Jiangsu Economic and Information Department and the group will visit the Wuxi SensingNet Industrialisation Research Institute. Finally, the group moves to Shanghai. The e-health mission also starts in Beijing, where group meetings feature the China Hospital Information Management Association and the Ministry of Health's Digital Information Centre. In Chengdu, a visit will be made to the Chengdu e-health pilot project, while the Shenzen leg of the mission will feature a visit to a long distance diagnosis system and an industry roundtable. Concluding in Shanghai, the mission will see another long distance diagnosis system as well as a virtual patient visiting system based on TD-SCDMA. Participation in each mission is limited to 50 companies and costs £250 per company. For more information and an application form, contact Fiona King at Tradefair (01622 754200 or fiona.king@tradefair.co.uk)