Recruiting in China

CHINESE investment in the UK grew by 13 percent in the past financial year according to a report yesterday by the UK Department of Trade and Investment.

Chinese companies invested in 59 projects in the UK in 2007-2008 compared to 52 in the year before, making China the ninth largest foreign investor in the UK, and the third largest investor from Asia after Japan and India. The latest figures reaffirm the UK as the leading investment destination in Europe for Chinese investors.

The UK's pro-business regulatory environment, leading position in research and development and its geographic location as gateway to the European market were the main draws for Asian investors, according to director of trade and investment for China, Alastair Morgan, at yesterday's release of the UK Inward Investment 2007/2008 Report.

While London has attracted the lion's share of Chinese investment in the past, accounting for 13 percent of all Chinese projects in the UK since 1997, the UK government is keen to attract investment in other areas.

The South East England Development Agency has set up an office in Shanghai to attract investment in the area that ranks second to London in making up the UK's GDP.

"The trend we have seen is for increasingly high quality and knowledge-driven companies from China," Simon Jagger, of the agency's Pacifici Asian team, told a press conference last week.