– ‘Low-hanging’ fruit –
“Following the victory of the Conservative Party in the May 2015 general election, infrastructure investment has once again been identified as a top policy priority given the UK’s big deficit in infrastructure assets resulting from chronic under-investment,” she said.
“The country’s northern regions should serve as particularly attractive propositions for investment given that the ‘low-hanging’ fruit in terms of infrastructure investment there have not been reaped in the same way as in the south,” she said.
China has already made some investments including in Manchester airport, from which Xi will depart on Friday after a visit to Manchester City football club.
Reflecting Britain’s needs in the area, finance minister George Osborne during a recent visit to China announced a giant tender for a high-speed train line linking London to northern England.
The burgeoning relations are controversial for some, with The Economist magazine saying Britain was “sleepwalking” into relations with China, while the Daily Telegraph newspaper said there was “an awful lot of kowtowing to Chinese sensitivities and interests”.
The criticism has done little to dissuade business.
In the property market, three years after buying the London headquarters of Deutsche Bank, China is eyeing the ongoing boom and the highlight of the visit in business terms could be a deal between French company EDF and its Chinese partners to build a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in southwest Britain.
China could also further its ambitions to internationalise its currency, the renminbi.
Among the possible deals planned during the visit is one for the first issuing of Chinese sovereign debt in renminbi outside of China.
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