On November 9, 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Buckingham Palace where he stayed with Deputy UK Prime Minister John Prescott, President of China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) Lord Powell and President of the 48 Group Club of UK Stephen Perry respectively and held friendly talks with them on strengthening bilateral cooperation in various areas especially in the economic and trade field.

When meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Prescott and members of Task Forces, Hu said that the Task Forces established respectively by both sides have put forward a lot of valuable suggestions for elevating bilateral relations and advancing cooperation in various areas and played a positive role in pushing for bilateral cooperation. It is hoped that the Task Forces of both sides will continue efforts to propose in time thoughts and suggestions on developing bilateral relations including some new major cooperation areas based on in-depth research of their respective development strategies and complementary advantages. Prescott noted that the Task Forces of both sides have done effective work in pushing implementation of cooperation priorities identified between both sides.

Hu also held in-depth discussions with the members of the Task Forces on strengthening bilateral cooperation in the areas of education, health and sustainable development.

When meeting with President of CBBC Lord Powell and President of the 48 Group Club of UK Perry, Hu made positive comments on the important role played by these two institutions in promoting development of bilateral economic and trade relations. Hu pointed out that the bilateral economic and trade relations have witnessed rapid progress and the bilateral trade volume increased by over 60 times from 320 million US dollars when both sides established diplomatic ties to 19.7 billion US dollars last year. Compared with economic strength and practical needs of both sides, bilateral business cooperation enjoys huge development potential. We welcome more British businesses to enter the Chinese market, expand trade of high-tech products and strengthen cooperation in the service sector including discussing the possibility of jointly expanding the international market. He hoped that both sides will continue joint efforts and continuously push for the development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Powell, Perry and the representatives from the UK business community at the meeting all held that China's rapid development and sound bilateral political relations have offered a rare opportunity for UK businesses to cooperate with China. They will push more UK businesses to conduct mutually beneficial cooperation with China in various forms.