Research and analysis

China: regional cities: Great Britain in Kunming Week: April 2014

Published 1 May 2014

0.1 Summary

GREAT fund supports the first British Week in Kunming, capital of SW China’s Yunnan province. Enthusiastic support from local government, media, public, UK companies and British community contributes to the success of the event. Positive experience working with regional government. Potential leads in business, education, energy and science.

0.2 Detail

Supported by £9K of GREAT funding, we hosted the first British week (14-20 April) in Kunming, one of China’s fastest growing regional cities (population 7.4 million, annual GDP growth in 2013 above 12%). The week comprised over 20 high-profile activities including UK product showcases, trade promotion seminars, a tourism salon and public exhibitions; designed to promote the best of British culture, education, commerce, science and innovation.

As the first foreign government to host such a high profile and large-scale promotional event in Kunming, we gained first mover advantage in three distinct ways:

support from local government and enhanced bilateral relations: Throughout our preparations, both Kunming municipal and Yunnan provincial governments engaged enthusiastically, mobilising over 30 government departments to support our events. Accompanied by the Consulate team and several local British businesses, we had meetings with the Provincial Vice Governor Gao Shuxun and Kunming’s Vice Mayor (Guan Qinghua, newly transferred from Beijing now covering foreign affairs portfolio). Both stressed the desire to work more closely with us on education, trade and investment and cultural exchange. During lunch hosted by Vice Mayor Ruan Fengbin (trade portfolio), he instructed the Foreign Affairs Office to arrange production of a documentary about the British week for local TV, with the aim of using UK’s active engagement in Kunming as a role model for other countries. In immediate follow-up, Kunming government has already signalled its desire to send two vice mayors to the UK later this year.

Great media coverage: the enthusiasm from the local media was striking. British Week was reported by over 20 key local media outlets including Chuncheng Evening News (cir: 700,000/day) and its official weibo account (over 1.1 million). The UK Tourism Salon received exceptionally wide media coverage – not only promoting the UK as a tourism destination, but also successfully publicising British Airways’ direct flight from Chengdu, while busting common myths about the UK visa application process.

Great enthusiasm from UK companies and British community to support the British week: our effort to promote British companies and products, in an area where British brands and expertise have yet to penetrate, was embraced by those companies already established and others interested in the market. We attracted sponsorship from 20 British businesses , with sponsors helping to organise 1/3 of the week’s activities. Willis hosted an Insurance Financial Services Workshop; Robert’s English School (set up by a former VSO Volunteer) participated with its foreign teachers and students dressing up as famous British characters like James Bond, Harry Potter and Robin Hood in Kunming’s busiest high street; British food & drink distributors, British hotel chains and a British-owned local bar & club also hosted complimentary events, enabling us to do more with less.

The general approach was balancing exclusive events and public activities: while invitation-only events like the Invest UK workshop, China-UK Science Partnership workshop, and UK Tourism Salon helped us to secure immediate commercial and project leads, public events greatly increased our soft power impact and raised UK awareness among the general public in Kunming. For instance, public exhibitions, including retail brands showcases, photo exhibitions and a New Energy Car Design Exhibition, received well over 30,000 visitors during the week. The British Characters Show was particularly, popular gaining front page coverage in two mainstream local newspapers and generating thousands of phone camera images.

0.3 Comment

The success of the ‘Great Britain in Kunming’ week tapped great potential for UK-Kunming and wider Yunnan collaboration. We are already busy following up a series of leads. These include, assisting 5 UK companies to seek contracts with a local creative industrial park; supporting Yunnan Energy Department’s inward visit to the UK this summer; assisting Kunming Institute of Botany to participate in the International Business Festival in Liverpool following its MOU signing with UK National Wildflower Centre on wildflower seeds preservation during our opening; assisting local media to work with British Airways and leading travel agencies to organise the first tourist group from Kunming to the UK in October this year; Kunming science community are already discussing project ideas with Science and Innovation Network colleagues. The British Council, which ran the Social Entrepreneurship Promotion Salon, is already in discussion on new English projects as a result of renewed interest from the Education Bureau.

These events sent a strong signal of UK commitment to developing a wide ranging relationship with this important provincial city, which was noted and warmly received by senior local interlocutors. The key going forward will be to maintain the good will generated, by ensuring we follow up with substance.

0.4 Disclaimer

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