Spirit of business bridges nations
The winner of the Company of the Year Award from the British Chamber of Commerce in China is Astra Zeneca. It has 29 branch offices in China with 3,300 employees in manufacturing, sales, clinical research and new product development. Amy Y.L. Ng, senior vice-president of corporate affairs said that their goal is to provide products to help people live a healthy life. He emphasized that it is not just a slogan but a real commitment they focused on in the past and will devote to in the future.
The award was sponsored by UK Trade and Investment. It is a governmental organization that tries to attract high-quality investment toward the UK and to support British business overseas. Its largest team is in China.
“Often, even our strongest performing companies are not household names because they are in specialist fields in financial service, environmental technology, advanced engineering, creative industry and life sciences,” said Alistair Morgan, director of Trade and Investment, China. He noted that they are proud to sponsor the 2008 Company of the Year Award because they consider the British Business Award as an excellent way to recognize UK success.
Dominic Johnson-Hill was announced the winner of the entrepreneur award by Gary Dirks, who is vice-president of BP Group and president of BP China. He said the reason why they set the Entrepreneur of the Year Award is they hope it could encourage more innovators to share their creativity and insights to inspire others to bring ideas into business so that it is helpful for the sustainable future.
Johnson-Hill created the Plastered T-shirt brand in Beijing. He said through their perseverance and commitment, they have managed to bring a simple and creative idea into shape.
The winner of the Alumnus of the Year went to Yan Xinmin of Volvo Event Management, for her passion toward sailing which she learnt while studying in the UK. One of the sponsor of the Alumnus Award is the British Council, operating in China as cultural and education section of the British Embassy. Education is just a small part of sino-UK relations, and the judges believed Yan set a good example of other returned scholars.
Sponsored by Jardine One Solutions, the Innovative Product or Service Award went to venerable British business Hayward-Tyler. According to John Ling, director and general manager of Hayward-Tyler Pumps Kunshan, the company has a history of 200 years and has been doing business with China for the last 24 years. “China is really developing, with its infrastructure providing more power to its growing cities, towns and villages. Hayward-Tyler is proud to be part of this process. Our founder could never have imagined that this British company would be recognized in China.”
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) won the Corporate Social Responsibility Award, which was sponsored by a long history company Standard Chartered Bank. On receiving such kind of Award, the director of GSK legal affairs Shufen Wen said with a history of over 100 years, the company is determined to being a corporate citizen to help people “do more, feel better and live longer.”
Young Icebreaker is the final award. It is sponsored by the 48 Group Club, who started business since 1950s and established mutual beneficial relationship with newly founded People’s Republic of China.
This prize went to Fan Zhenxin, the founder of Amber Design and Public Relations. He has made contributions to the relationship between China and the UK through his professional excellence, and reified a “spirit of friendship” between the two countries.
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