China to take one-third stake in UK’s £24bn nuclear power plant

Europe, News October 21, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to sign a deal to contribute to a new nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset during the first Chinese state visit in a decade

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to back the first nuclear power plant to be built in the UK in decades.

China has reportedly agreed to fund one-third of the costs of building a new £24 billion nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset in a deal signed between state-owned companies from China and France before the arrival of Xi Jinping in London.

France’s EDF and the China General Nuclear Power Corporation will be the only investors in the deal, but the UK government is backing it with £17 billion of UK Government loan guarantees.

The plant could be opened by 2025 at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, with China likely to cover about 30% of the cost. The plant is expected to deliver 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity.

More than £30bn worth of deals between the UK and China are expected to be struck during the four-day visit.

Two other nuclear power stations, at Sizewell in Suffolk, and Bradwell in Essex, could follow as part of the deal with China.

UK-China ties ‘will be lifted to new height’: Xi Jinping

China’s President Xi Jinping has said he believes his visit will lift UK-China relations to a “new height” as UK and China were becoming more interdependent and a “community of shared interests,” he said on the first full day of his four-day visit.

The Queen, at a Buckingham Palace banquet, said this was a “very special year for our bilateral relationship”.

During the first day of his visit on Monday, Mr Xi said he believed the UK and China were becoming more interdependent and a “community of shared interests”.

Addressing peers and MPs in Westminster, President Xi Jinping said he was “deeply impressed by the vitality of China-UK relations”.

He and his wife, Peng Liyuan were welcomed by the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Mr Cameron during a ceremony in Horse Guards Parade before attending a state banquet at Buckingham Palace along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

China to invest £30bn in UK plc: how the deals break down

China will bring £30bn in deals and investment to the UK this week, Prime Minister David Cameron has claimed.

The money will be secured as Britain welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit, the first from China in a decade.

The cash generated by new deals will help to create 3,900 jobs across the UK, according to 10 Downing Street.

“This is going to be a very important moment for British-Chinese relations. Trade and investment between our two nations is growing and our people-to-people links are strong,” Mr Cameron said.

Kamel Mellahi, a professor of management at Warwick Business School, said that China’s partnership with the UK looks like a “win-win economic alliance”.