Giant pandas from China help seal new business deals with UK
China's vice-premier Li Keqiang begins visit to UK with Scottish refinery deal and promise of two pandas to Edinburgh zoo
Allegra Stratton and Tania Branigan
guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 January 2011 22.31 GMT |
| Scotland's cultural and external affairs minister Fiona Hyslop stands next to a picture of Tian Tian, one of a breeding pair of giant pandas who will be coming to Edinburgh Zoo. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA |
A total of £2.6bn worth of business deals were struck between the UK and China today with agreements of Chinese funding to secure the future of Scotland's biggest mainland oil refinery.
It was also announced that China will send the first giant pandas to the UK for 17 years, to Edinburgh Zoo.
The Chinese vice-premier, Li Keqiang, who is expected to become China's next prime minister, is in the UK for four days with up to 50 government officials and 100 Chinese business leaders in tow. The visit is a response to David Cameron's high-profile trip to China last year.
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, was in Scotland with Li to see the operator of the Grangemouth oil refinery strike the deal with China's largest oil and gas firm, PetroChina. The Scottish government said it would help protect 2,000 jobs.
BP and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation agreed a deal on deep-water exploration in the South China Sea.
Tian Tian and Yangguang, a pair of breeding seven-year-old pandas, will come to Edinburgh this year. Li and Clegg signed the deal yesterday after five years of negotiations. The UK's last giant panda, Ming Ming, lived at London Zoo until she was returned to China in 1994. China used to give pandas to other countries – known as "panda diplomacy" – but three years ago decreed the animals should only be lent out for breeding and research.
Cameron's visit two months ago was accompanied by leading British business figures. The prime minister said he wanted to boost UK exports to China to $100bn a year by 2015. At present they make up less than 3% of Britain's total exports. During the trip he raised concerns about human rights, saying economic freedom should go "in step" with political reform.
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Li aspires to lift the EU trade ban which limits the export of items to China that could perform a military function.
His trip to Europe has been called a charm offensive, showing confidence in the eurozone. The EU is China's largest trade partner, and China has promised to buy Spanish bonds and help with the eurozone debt crisis. Beijing seeks improved access to markets and faces grumbling over its currency's low valuation. Its case may be bolstered by the announcement today that its overall trade surplus fell to $13.1bn in December. The annual figure was $183.1bn, a 6.4% fall from 2009.
