China’s booming Shandong province will be the subject of the next webinar being organised by the Bristol and West of England China Bureau. 

Having focused on the Greater Bay Area - which includes Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao - in its last online session, the bureau’s next webinar next month will focus further north on Shandong, a coastal province located between Shanghai and Beijing, and China’s third largest economy with a population of 100 million. 

The webinar will be staged from 9am – 10.30am (GMT) on Thursday, 15th April and will focus on opportunities in Shandong for UK businesses in the advanced engineering and pharma tech sectors, as well as looking at the start-up support available in the province.   

Participants will have the chance to take part in a Q&A to ask questions about the local business environment to officials from the Shandong Municipal Government. 

The webinar will be hosted by Richard Lowe, director of business initiatives at the China Bureau and director of long-term bureau member Hewlett Rand, and moderated by Liu Fakai, head of the China-UK Spring City Talent Office.  

The speakers will be: 

• Dianne Francombe OBE, CEO of the Bristol & West of England China Bureau

• Yang Ding, director and regional representative of the bureau

• Martin Veal, member of Jinan Mayor’s International Economic Advisory Committee

• Zhao Tingchun, Director of International Cooperation, Jinan City Human Resources and Social Security Bureau

• Ji Yuan – Director of Public Service, Jinan City Science and Technology Bureau

• Zhang Zuojun – Chief Secretary, Shandong Chinese Academy of Sciences Industrial Technology Collaborative Innovation Centre

• Jiang Chenyu – Dean, Shandong Institute of Innovation, Suzhou Institute of Medical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Zhuang Haiyan – Dean/CTO, Shandong Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine
  
  

The China Bureau already has a track record of success in building successful links with Shandong. 

In 2018 it received a delegation from the province in both Bristol and Bath which helped lay the foundations for Cheltenham-based Versarien plc to open a graphene products manufacturing plant in Shandong’s Jinan Innovation Zone. Graphene is a cutting-edge engineering material, lightweight, thin, flexible, conductive, and incredibly lightweight, that is used in electrical and photonics circuits.  

The China Bureau also has a friendship agreement with Qinzhou in Shandong province and was instrumental in Shandong Qingneng Power Co. Ltd. developing a relationship with Brush Electrical Machines in the same year. 

Richard Lowe said: “Our April webinar will be an opportunity to learn more about a province that perhaps has a slightly lower profile in the UK than others, but which nonetheless has huge potential for our businesses, as we have already seen with Versarien. 

“The event will provide a forum for West of England businesses to engage the Shandong Municipal Government on local policy relating to trade and investment, as well as the cities’ talent programme. 

“This webinar is a catalyst event for ongoing co-operation with Shandong province and we will share opportunities for longer term engagement to explore commercial opportunities for start-up and partnership collaboration with participants who are interested in this exciting region.” 

Tickets for the event are available at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/demand-for-british-advanced-engineering-pharma-tech-in-shandong-china-tickets-146648221779