Sole firm joins mission

A 25-strong British trade mission visiting China this week with the President of the Board of Trade Ian Lang includes just one construction company - the Norwegian Kvaerner group.

Kvaerner is visiting Beijing alongside top companies including Eagle Star, BP, Lucas Industries and Rolls Royce.

Some of the companies are also visiting Dalian, a major area of development in a country which is set to become the most important foreign market for UK companies in the next century.

However, construction industry insiders questioned the value of such trips.

Alick Goldsmith, director general of the Export Group for the Constructional Industries, was not surprised at the non-representation of UK contractors, arguing that such delegations have a limited use: "Construction companies don't automatically think that ministerial visits are a good thing and a lot of large contractors already have their own points of contact abroad including in China."

A spokesman for Amec agreed: "It seems that there are a lot of these trips but we're not sure that China is the market everyone supposes that it is and there are other parts of the Far East to consider.

"It's far harder for construction companies to get involved in overseas developments because of local building regulations etc, than for companies to export tangible goods."

A spokesman for Taylor Woodrow defended such trips but confirmed that the company was not on this visit nor did it join the 280-strong May delegation to China with Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine.

He said: "These trips are important because they fly the UK flag and they are a useful marketing exercise. But Taylor Woodrow has already built up lots of its own contacts in the Asia Pacific region including China." Nobody was available for comment at Kvaerner.

The Department of Trade and Industry said that past delegations to China had put construction at the top of the list, but said: "This trip was fairly specifically targeted at cars, chemicals and insurance."