Martin Graham, the Chairman of Oracle Capital Group, was asked in an interview by Russia Today TV to give his thoughts on this week’s visit to China by UK Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson.
The purpose of the five-day trip by Osborne and Johnson to Beijing is to court Chinese trade and investment.
Mr Graham supported the trip and said there were huge opportunities for the UK in China – opportunities which had been, to date, largely missed.
“Germany has been far more proactive than the UK in terms of promoting trade,” Mr Graham said, by way of example. “For instance, Germany exports $70billion of goods to China every year. There are 25 per cent more Chinese tourists going to France than to the UK. There are Chinese ladies queuing outside Chanel in Paris, waiting to buy handbags”.
The trade trip by the Chancellor and London Mayor is an important step towards changing attitudes towards China in the UK, explained Mr Graham, who has himself considerable experience working in China and the Far East.
“I think we’ve been slow in the UK, frankly, and a bit arrogant to think people will come to us”, Mr Graham continued. “The reality is that China is the largest growth economy in the world.”
Oracle Capital Group advisers are experts on the emerging market economies and regularly attend high-level conferences to debate and discuss the latest global wealth trends and developments.
Mr Graham has both attended and moderated on panels at many of these events on Oracle Capital Group’s behalf, most recently at the Shorex Wealth Management Forum in London, a specialist media group for the wealth management industry and the high-end luxury market.
