We are delighted to invite you to the Thames Valley International China event on 24^th May at The Gateway Building, Reading.

The China event is a great opportunity for the owners and leaders of exporting businesses to meet, and understand more about China and how to work with other businesses in China. Past events have been well attended and received excellent feedback.

We are delighted to confirm that  Dr Kegang Wu, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce will be our first speaker and will provide a China market update highlighting recent market changes as a result of the economic rebalancing in the last few years. He will also inform new challenge and opportunities for British companies, which has will result from new policies introduced, further opening-up of sectors and new initiatives. He will cover what business support and service in the 21 cities and the Guangdong Province. Kegang will be happy to take questions including those on the Belt & Road Initiative, the view of Chinese investors on Brexit, Guangdong’s Free Trade Zones and the Greater Bay Area strategy, and other market priorities announced. Details of incoming Guangdong Forum event,  Chinese trade delegations and organised trade visits to Guangdong will be available.

Dr. Kegang Wu specialises on the China market for the last two decades in the UK with a track record of helping British SMEs across sectors. He advises on strategy, trade and investment promotion, contract negotiation and cross-cultural issues in partnership.   In recent years he has been focusing on linking the UK with China’s most prosperous region Guangdong Province and its 21 cities, for which He is responsible for the China-Guangdong Economic and Trade Office in the UK (中国广东省驻英国经贸代表处). He also runs BCC LinkToChina (英国英中商会) and the China Desk of Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce (泰晤士谷商会).  Bilingual in Chinese and English, he has travelled over 80 times to China over the years and guided hundreds of British companies in China market, and more recently Chinese companies in the UK.  Kegang obtained his PhD in Geography from King’s College London.

Our second speaker is James Hardy, Chief Executive of Avenue51, which is a business takes British brands into China via e-commerce channels.  James was formerly Head of Alibaba in Europe. He was based in San Francisco for 10 years and Sydney for 3 years, and was formerly general counsel of the world’s largest technology communications agency, managing acquisitions and operations in the US, Europe, India and China. He holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and is a UK qualified solicitor.

Parking is available for all visitors.

The International Event is supported by Barclays Bank, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce and Avenue51.