To see the full text of the speech please click here.

Dr Eugene Chang from the China Britain Business Council and Yu Jing, press representative from the Chinese Embassy welcomed the guests and gave chinaONEcall their seal of approval.

Yu Jing expressed sincere congratulations to chinaONEcall on such a useful idea, and felt it provided a bridge between the 2 countries promoting better understanding and friendship between the people of China and the UK.

Dr Chang who opened the proceedings reflected on the fact that there may shortly be almost as many English language speakers in China as there are in the entire English-speaking world – but that doesn’t mean anyone can get by in doing business or travelling by just speaking English. CBBC members would surely be one of the first subscribers to chinaONEcall as China has one of the largest mobile phone networks in the world, with over 200,000 new mobile accounts opened every day – which is pretty awesome!

Michael Sinclair, Managing Director of chinaONEcall spoke of his personal experiences that inspired him to come up with the idea for the innovative service and said that he felt the full house at the launch was a reflection already of the value chinaONEcall can add to travel in China.

After watching a short film of the call centre in China in action, we dined lavishly from copious trays of beautifully crafted morsels based on a far east or oriental theme – miniature spring rolls, sushi, vast amounts of tempura prawns, thai green curry cornets – the food just kept coming. There was also Tsing Tao to wash it down as the guests merrily networked in to the night.

At the end of the evening the chinaONEcall team were found hunched in a corner with several bottles of self congratulatory Tsing Tao and more food! They deserved it – it had been a triumphant evening!