Liu Xiaoming, Chinese Ambassador to the UK Photos: Courtesy of the Chinese Embassay to the UK

China-UK practical cooperation has been a leading force in cooperation between China and the West, and joint development in trade, finance and investment will further deepen in the future, Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the UK, said Wednesday at a virtual farewell symposium held by the China Britain Business Council.

After serving in the post for eleven years, Ambassador Liu is soon to return to China.

The UK has become China's second-biggest investment destination in Europe in the past eleven years. Several infrastructure projects, including Hinckley Point C Nuclear Power Plant, Royal Albert Dock, and other large-scale iconic cooperation projects are progressing steadily. 

A total of eight Chinese banks have branches in the UK, and London is now the world's biggest offshore trading center and the second-largest offshore clearing center for Renminbi, with a total clearing volume exceeding 50 trillion yuan ($7.74 trillion).

"Throughout these past eleven years, we have witnessed and worked together for the opening-up of new frontiers for China-UK mutually beneficial cooperation," Liu said during his speech. 

Liu also noted that China-UK cooperation has played a pioneering and leading role in many areas of productive cooperation between China and Western countries. Among the Western countries, the UK was the first to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and inject capital into the AIIB special fund, and the first to appoint a special envoy to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and sign the Guiding Principles on Financing the Development of the BRI.

Liu said that in the future, China and the UK should follow the cooperation trend and "shore up confidence," as the world will experience profound changes, including challenges arising from the pandemic, as well as from unilateralism. 

"It is important that we remain confident in the major trends of economic globalization, the prospects of China's opening-up and development, and in the future of China-UK mutually beneficial cooperation," Liu said.