Britain said on Friday that it was about to sign commercial deals with China worth more than 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion), as finance minister George Osborne prepared to meet China's Vice Premier Ma Kai in London. Full details of the prospective transactions were not immediately available. But Britain's finance ministry said they included a $1 billion joint venture with China related to a Malaysian oil terminal, and a 200 million-pound project to develop nursing homes and vocational training schools in China.
Britain will also refund visa costs for up to 25,000 Chinese visitors on organised tours between 2015 and 2017. Osborne is meeting Ma as part of an annual Anglo-Chinese economic and financial dialogue, which last year took place in Beijing. Britain's Conservative-led government has made an effort to boost exports to China since 2010, in part because growth remains slow in many of Britain's main export markets in continental Europe.