Roundtable & Lunch with Lord Mandelson, Former European Trade Commissioner and British Deputy Prime Minister
2015-11-18 | Beijing
Lord Mandelson expressed his appreciation in meeting with Advisory Council of the European Chamber. He acknowledged that the Chamber was always the place he went to get his information when he served as the Trade Commissioner to the European Union
Lord Mandelson met recently with the Asia Investment Infrastructure Bank and expressed his view of the strong importance it will play on the global stage. Ad Council discussed the impact of the creation of this new multilateral development bank and the opportunities it will create for business. Lord Mandelson was clear that we should support the AIIB but that we should monitor its development carefully, particularly with regard to its governance and its accessibility for European companies. Ad Council Members discussed the likelihood of how China’s SOE’s will use the AIIB to carry out investments in the regions. It was confirmed that the AIIB supports the One Belt One Road initiative. The AIIB aims be clean and green. It will be open to all, not just members. Chamber informed that President Jin has confirmed his presence at the European Chamber Annual Conference on December 1st.
Vice President Bertrand de la Noue confirmed that the business environment has become much more difficult and that fourth plenum’ very important focus on the Rule of Law has not materialized in practice. AC Member and former President Davide Cucino expressed concern about China’s growing debt and how Chinese banks are rolling over loans to avoid having to mark down non-performing loans. AC members in general agreed that the reform process has either slowed or was stuck. The Chamber shared reasons why such as the leadership’s prioritization on other issues such as the anti-corruption campaign and geo-politics. The former reason has resulted in a paralysis in some ministries as officials are overly cautious about making changes.
Lord Mandelson, based on his experience as deputy Prime Minister, offered his analysis why: 1) When new Govts come in and then they launch all sorts of new initiatives. 2) They learn that the ministries aren’t always able to follow so the PM/President will create task forces to steer them. 3) The PM/President then gets bogged down in the day-to-day workload of running the Government/Country. 4) The Task Forces meet resistance but the President/PM doesn’t have the time to get back involved (eg Xi Jinping has been on business trips to UK, Singapore, Tukey Philippines in the last 4 weeks); and then everything slows…
Secretary General Adam Dunnett briefed Lord Mandelson and AC members on the inclusion of security related text in key legislative documents and how this could be used in the future to limit, increase costs or force companies share confidential information: draft NGO Law, national security law, draft cybersecurity law, ICT procurement in the banking and insurance sector etc.
Other AC members discussed issues specific to their sector in water, energy, and food.
Lord Mandelson briefed AC members on the UK referendum. He said, as a European and as a British national, he was very concerned about the lack of awareness and consideration that has been given to this topic in the UK by businesses. He said too many people think that the UK will stay in, but felt that there was only a 50/50 chance as many people have seized and used this issue as a political one without understanding its economic importance.