The British Business Awards are an awards programme organised by the British Chambers of Commerce in China to recognise and promote excellence in innovation enterprise and endeavour, in the British business community in China. Established in 2008, the awards programme is now held every two years. The 2012 Awards are run by The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai. I was involved in the 2008 Awards and am delighted to see that these Awards are taking place again this year, and that
Eggplantdigital.cn is still the official web provider. The Awards were an idea which I proposed to the Chamber of Commerce in Beijing at the AGM in November 2007. A year later on November 6th 2008 over 380 people attended the gala dinner. As Chairman of the Awards I was seated next to Prince Andrew with the role to keep the Duke of York interested enough to postpone his planned early departure, an event which would have embarrassed the British Ambassador Sir William Ehrman, Cheng Si-wei of the National Peoples Congress and the Deputy General Sun of the Ministry of Commerce.
At dinner I asked his Royal Highness what he found most remarkable about China. “The level of transparency in the way that they share their problems now” he stated. Cheng Si-wei replied that the leadership had learnt a great deal about the benefits of openness during the Sichuan earthquake earlier this year. They realized that they could not contain the news and embraced the idea of showing the human face of China. International reaction with aid and support had vindicated their policy. No one at the table pursued the topic. The Duke was bemused that an owner of a Rolls Royce in China would be obliged to take the same test as a truck driver due to the length of the luxury car, an issue that I had to confess had not affected me yet in my endeavours. This year I shall seek to enter as Morgan Cars, subject to
Morgan Motors approval. It would be tremendous to return to the event as a competitor.
