The Isle of Man’s Department of Economic Development has been working with Liverpool’s economic development agency, Liverpool Vision, as part of a new partnership approach to promote the two regions in China.

Department representatives and Liverpool Vision presented recently at 3 major business events in China including the China-Britain Business Council’s Outbound Investment Conference, the UKTI’s flagship annual event in China. In total, over 500 professionals attended the 3 events across 3 cities.

Leonard Singer MHK, the Department’s political member for Financial Services and Country Strategy said:

‘We have been working hard over the past year to develop closer business relationships with the North West and this partnership approach is entirely logical given the Department has a Memorandum of Understanding with Liverpool Vision to work on attracting overseas investment together.

‘There is commitment on both sides to continue to work together to benefit from the opportunities arising from our promotional work in China.

‘We are already seeing promising results and have jointly hosted a visiting technology business which plans to establish an Isle of Man sales base for services it is planning to sell into the UK. There are now plans in place for other such businesses to visit the Island over the next few months to assess the excellent business opportunities here.’

Steven Beevers, Head of Special Projects, Department of Economic Development commented:

‘There has been an intensified focus on the UK recently from China following both the President’s UK visit and UK Chancellor’s China visit which has massively boosted interest in Chinese investment into the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, especially Liverpool and Manchester.

‘We offer a compelling proposition whereby Chinese trading companies established in the Isle of Man can use Liverpool’s port and customs warehousing and utilise the Island’s financial services providers to operate these and for help with commercial property investments and international wealth management services.’