Mr Cameron says trade with countries like China lies at the heart of foreign policy.
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to arrive in China as part of Britain’s largest-ever delegation to the country.
He will join about 50 top business leaders on a trip he has described as a “vitally important trade mission”.
It is Mr Cameron’s first official visit to the world’s second largest economy, where he is also expected to raise concerns over its human rights record.
Promising “closer engagement” with China, he has said “banging the drum for trade” is key to UK foreign policy.
“Our message is simple: Britain is now open for business, has a very business-friendly government, and wants to have a much, much stronger relationship with China,” he said.
Among those taking part in the visit are executives from companies including Rolls-Royce, Barclays and Diageo and some deals have already been announced.
Business secretary Vince Cable, who is already in Beijing, earlier signed an agreement that will allow the export of British breeding pigs to China, home to half of the world’s pig population.
That deal – and future business stemming from the agreement – is valued at about £45m to the British pig industry over the next five years.
Vince Cable told the BBC’s Robert Peston he will be working toward productive trade deals
The Chinese and British authorities also reached a deal to ensure only whisky produced in Scotland will be marketed in China as Scotch, a move some estimate will increase sales by tens of millions of pounds.
Some of the other deals include:
three multi-million pound contracts with a fee value of more than £4m for London-based architects and designers Benoyan agreement between Clyde Blowers and Yima Coal Industry Group to supply coal injection technology for three gasifiers – a deal worth £2mmachine maker Group Rhodes is signing a contract with Xinhang, a second-tier supplier to the Chinese aerospace industry, worth £1,850,000.
More deals are set to be unveiled at a ceremony on Tuesday, following talks between Mr Cameron and Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao.
Earlier, Chancellor George Osborne, who is also in China, told the BBC the visit was the “largest and most high-powered” visit to the country from a UK delegation.
Mr Osborne said that this was not a new chapter in British relations with China.
But he added the country had reached a stage in its development where it was “more likely to want the things which Britain is good at”.
These included financial services, insurance and luxury goods, he added.
Currently, exports to China, although growing fast, are relatively small compared with other markets. For example, the UK exports twice as much to the Irish Republic than to China.
The visit is the prime minister’s second major trip to an emerging economy since taking power.
It follows a high-profile visit to India in July.
And as well as trying to boost business, Mr Cameron will also raise the issue of China’s human rights record.
Mr Cameron’s office said he would challenge China on its human rights record, but was not specific about which subjects he would raise.
Mr Osborne said that discussions about human rights had been going on for many years but added it was “not the only thing we talk to the Chinese about”.
“Our economic relationship is an incredibly important and strong one,” he said.
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Mr Bloomer wants to see a wider system for running schools in Scotland
A senior figure in Scottish education has backed the idea of allowing charitable trusts and not-for-profit companies to run schools.
Keir Bloomer is a former leader of the Association of Directors of Education who has also been an adviser to the Scottish government.
He thinks councils should no longer run all publicly-funded schools.
His ideas are likely to be opposed by local authority body Cosla, which is against a major revamp in education.
Mr Bloomer will be among a number of speakers at a conference in Edinburgh on managing Scotland’s schools.
He suggests that if schools were run by non-profit making companies or charitable trusts they would be more effective as they would have more control over what they do and how they spend their money.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Democracy, trade and security will dominate Mr Obama’s agenda
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US President Barack Obama is due to make the next stop of his 10-day Asian tour with a key visit to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
As on his first stop, India, trade and showing support for democratic progress will be major issues.
But analysts add that this will be Mr Obama’s biggest chance to re-engage the Muslim world since a keynote speech in Cairo in June last year.
Mr Obama is also revisiting a nation where he spent four years as a boy.
His schedule includes dinner with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and also a visit to south-east Asia’s largest mosque – the Istiqlal.
The US president is expected to praise the economic growth and democratic progress in Indonesia in his meeting with Mr Yudhoyono.
The pair are also likely to sign a “comprehensive partnership” pact they agreed a year ago, taking in issues of trade, security, education, investment and climate change.
Mr Obama’s speechwriter and deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said: “We’ve had this focus on Asia and on emerging powers and on democracies as kind of cornerstones of the kind of strategic orientation of the United States in the 21st Century.
“India fits firmly in that category and so does Indonesia.”
A street artist in a Jakarta store displays a picture welcoming Mr Obama
Security will be a key issue, with Mr Obama sure to encourage the Indonesian administration to maintain a strong policy of tackling Islamic militancy.
Indonesia suffered once of the deadliest insurgent attacks, when 202 people were killed by bombs on the resort island of Bali in October 2002.
US officials have played down Mr Obama’s speech at the Istiqlal Mosque.
But analysts say this will be the most high-profile address to the Muslim world since the Cairo speech.
Middle East writer Roger Hardy says that that speech had been well received, with its offer of “a new beginning” based on “mutual interest and mutual respect”.
But he says that since then, the mood has changed.
Recent polls show that, in key parts of the Muslim world, Mr Obama’s credibility has slumped, and this may be a second chance to return to some of the themes he set out in Cairo.
Indonesia is trying to recover from two natural disasters
Mr Obama has twice postponed this visit because of domestic problems.
He is also visiting at a time when Indonesia is trying to recover from two natural disasters – the eruption of Mt Merapi, which has killed more than 130 people, and the tsunami that struck the Mentawai islands, killing more than 400 people and forcing thousands into emergency shelters.
The trip will provide little time for nostalgia in a country where he spent four years as a boy with his late mother, attending schools in Jakarta between the ages of six and 10.
Mr Obama remains popular in the country but may have to wait until next year’s East Asia summit for any Indonesian leisure time.
Mr Obama spent three days on his first stop, India, signing $10bn (£6.2bn) in new trade deals and backing India’s ambition for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
After Indonesia, Mr Obama will visit South Korea and Japan on his Asian tour.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Incoming chief executive Bob Diamond was faced with a further fall in business at the investment bank unit that he currently runs
Barclays has reported a small rise in underlying profits in the latest quarter as business continued to slow.
Total profits for the third quarter were £1.27bn ($2.03bn) before adjusting for the rising market value of Barclays debts, up 8.5% from the previous quarter, but down 28% from a year ago.
Net of this “own credit charge” effect, profits before tax were only £327m.
Gross income of £7.4bn – a measure of overall business – was down 4.5% from the quarter before and 9.5% from 2009.
The fall in business was led by a 24% year-on-year drop in top level income at the firm’s investment bank, Barclays Capital, according to the UK company’s statement.
While Barclays Capital saw fees from advisory work holding up well, revenues at its various capital markets sales and trading business lines continued to sag.
However, the Barclays group overall benefited from a reduction in losses on its existing loans portfolio.
Total impairments of £1.22bn in the quarter were down 23% from the previous three months, and down 27% from a year ago.
“Our income and profit performance was resilient for the first nine months of 2010, despite a subdued economic environment and moderate volumes,” said current chief executive John Varley, who will make way for the current head of Barclays Capital, Bob Diamond, in March.
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Fighting between ethnic rebels and government soldiers has caused at least 15,000 people to flee into Thailand
Burma’s main military-backed political party says it won about 80% of votes in the first election in 20 years.
A Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) official said the party was pleased with the result.
The main pro-democracy party, the NLD, boycotted the poll but other opposition groups have alleged widespread fraud.
Meanwhile, fighting between ethnic Karen rebels and government forces sparked by the poll has caused at least 15,000 people to flee into Thailand.
Refugee officials are scrambling to provide shelter for the huge influx of Burmese near the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
Residents in the town of Myawaddy said Burmese troops have now pushed back ethnic Karen rebels, who stormed government buildings on Sunday to protest against the election.
A faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) occupied a police station and polling booth in a show of opposition to the government’s plan to incorporate ethnic armies into a centrally-controlled border force.
Burmese troops are reportedly trying to dislodge ethnic Karen fighters from around the Three Pagodas Pass, which lies further south.
It remains unclear when any official result will be announced.
The poll is the first in Burma since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party secured an overwhelming victory but was never allowed to take power.
The junta says the election marks the transition from military rule to a civilian democracy, but the poll has been widely condemned as a sham. Western governments say it was neither free nor fair.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described it as insufficiently inclusive and transparent.
Despite this, some analysts say the election – although deeply flawed – could mark the start of a process of democratisation, by giving opposition lawmakers a voice, however limited, in the institutional decision-making process.
In Burma, pro-democracy opposition groups have made claims of fraud in the counting of votes in Sunday’s election.
Formal protests have been lodged with the Election Commission by at least six political parties.
These focus on the practice of advance voting, in which the government escorted government workers – civil servants and soldiers – to polling booths in the days before the poll.
“We took the lead at the beginning but the USDP later came up with so-called advance votes and that changed the results completely, so we lost,” Khin Maung Swe, leader of the National Democratic Force, the largest opposition party, told Reuters.
BURMA ELECTION: NUMBERSFirst election in 20 yearsTotal of 37 parties contesting the polls29 million voters eligible to cast ballots1.5 million ethnic voters disenfranchised because areas deemed too dangerous for voting to take placeAbout 3,000 candidates of whom two-thirds are running for junta-linked partiesNo election observers, no foreign journalists
David v Goliath in Rangoon How democratic are the polls?Other opposition figures earlier told BBC Burmese that while they had won at the polling stations – where a first count of ballots was sealed – they later lost at the Commission.
Voters were electing candidates to a two-chamber parliament and 14 regional assemblies.
More than two-thirds of the 3,000 candidates were running for two parties closely linked to the military junta.
The USDP is closely aligned with the head of the Burmese military government, Gen Than Shwe.
Dozens of senior officers have recently “retired” to stand for the party.
The constitution, which was written by the ruling generals, reserves more than a quarter of seats in the new parliament for the army.
The combined force of these two groups will likely mean that they have an effective veto over legislation.
More than 2,000 political prisoners were unable to take part.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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