England China Business Forum
ECBF 2023 Property Event
This year at our annual joint property event with Browne Jacobson hosted at their Birmingham office, we take a look into the hot, not-so new topic around town: Electric Vehicle (EV). The event focused on Charging Infrastructure required for EVs and was a massive success with a great turnout of attendees and quality discussion between the speakers and also a lively audience engagement. A light lunch was served to welcome the guests and speakers and even from the reception you could feel an excited buzz for the day’s topic.
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The event was introduced by Zo Hoida, who is a Partner at Browne Jacobson and Chair of the Birmingham China Business Forum. It was followed with a presentation by Joyce Tia (of Browne Jacobson and also a member of the ECBF) on data and market reports on EV Charging, materials courtesy of Arcadis authors of many significant EV Charging Strategies across the UK. The presentation showcases the challenges faced by the UK in achieving the UK Government’s target for zero emission vehicles by 2035 and compares the advances made thus far by other countries leading in this field, in particular China.
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We then dived into the main entrée for the event, a panel session led by Zo Hoida between our panel of experts; Tanya Sargent of Evenlode Roadside, Andy Cox of West Midlands Combined Authority and Nick Lane of Avonside Safety Management.
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The panel discussed the various issues and complexities involved in developing sufficient EV Charging Infrastructure, from scarcity of/competition for roadside land, challenges of feasibility in terms of ground conditions, suitability of mix of uses and viability with challenges around valuation/funding, skills gaps for construction and ongoing maintenance, and pressures on public authority resources. Audience attention was raptly fixed on the experts and they too got an opportunity to partake when the panel opened the floor for a Q&A session.
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The event concluded with a speech by James Ng, President of ECBF, and the attendees were invited to continue networking and speak with the panellists.
Welcoming Suzhou Delegation
On 18th September 2023, England China Business Forum hosted a meeting to welcome a senior delegation from Suzhou Xiangcheng, China led by Mr GU Jianming. The meeting was held at the offices of Brown Jacobson in Birmingham, where Zo Hoida, the Chair of Birmingham China Business Forum, is a Partner. Also in attendance on behalf of ECBF were Bill Good, Angela Qi Huang, Professor Steve Brittan and James Ng.
During the meeting, we discussed areas of future cooperation, including the promotion of trade between Suzhou Xiangcheng and companies in England in the fields of electric vehicles, big data, and digital economy. The delegation from Suzhou Xiangcheng expressed their eagerness to collaborate with English businesses in these areas, and it is expected that they will be supportive of future England China Business Forum.
About ECBF
We are a group of people who passionately believe in collaborating with each other to share experience and stimulate business opportunities, both large and small, between England and China.
We believe in building and sustaining long term business relationships that result in mutual benefits.
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