Salmond and Sturgeon fish for business with China

Headline making giant pandas arrived in Scotland thus month, Tian Tian and Yang Guang. Deputy First Minster, Nicola Sturgeon, was quoted in the Evening Times as saying. "Their presence is a great honour for Scotland and a sign of our strengthening relationship with China - one that is very economically important to us."

Here's the full newspaper text form the blip:

Scotland lures investment in SZ
2011-December-9 08:53 Shenzhen Daily
Cao Zhen

A DELEGATION of 40 Scottish companies hope to cooperate with Shenzhen in areas such as life science, information technology and financial services, according to a trade seminar held in Shenzhen on Thursday.

At the seminar organized by Scottish Development International (SDI), Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond signed a memorandum of understanding with Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin to encourage collaboration in trade, investment and education. The two sides also agreed to choose a Scottish city as a sister city of Shenzhen.

"Shenzhen is at the cutting edge of the world economy. When Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang visited Scotland in January, he recommended Shenzhen," said Salmond.

"Scotland offers a resilient and diversified economic environment for investors, which is strongly backed by its leading industries including renewable energy, information technology, life sciences and financial services. There is vast potential for deeper collaboration between Scotland and Shenzhen," Salmond added.

According to Anne MacColl, chief executive of SDI, Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies recently funded three research positions in information technology within Heriot Watt University and University of Glasgow.

She said: "Scotland offers excellent research and development expertise and facilities at competitive costs, and innovative Chinese firms such as Huawei continue to take advantage of this. Already, Edinburgh University and China's National Center for International Research in Stem Cells have signed a collaborative agreement."

According to Salmond, last year the trade volume between Shenzhen and Scotland was 5 billion pounds (US$7.84 billion). He hoped Shenzhen investors would collaborate with the Scottish financial sector because "Scotland is a world leader in asset management, with total assets of 750 billion pounds.


(I've modified the title to what I wanted it to be when I posted the blip but didn't have time to complete it and I've added in the first paragraph - 11pm 10th Dec '11)