Edinburgh Tourism Action Group (ETAG) won the newly launched Award for ‘Marketing Campaign of the Year’. The Award recognises ETAG’s success in launching Edinburgh’s first-ever Chinese social media campaign at the end of 2016 as part of its China Ready Programme to position Edinburgh as a must-visit destination and one of the most China-Friendly destinations in the UK.

‘ESG Champion of the Year’ - sponsored by Diageo - was awarded to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) whose mission is to ignite and nurture leadership in credible water stewardship through a market-based system that guides, recognises, and rewards good water stewardship practice. AWS’ first site to achieve certification to the AWS Standard in 2015 was Ecolab’s Taicang facility in the critically stressed Tai Hu basin. Since then, AWS has steadily enabled more major companies and their suppliers to adopt the AWS Standard in China: establishing a China Representative Office in Shanghai in 2023.

The Award for ‘Professional Advisory of the Year’ went to Burness Paull LLP, an independent law firm with a dedicated China Desk. Burness Paull LLP’s goal is to build upon its strong track record in advising Chinese clients and become the go-to firm for Chinese clients investing in Scotland and the wider UK, by providing tailored services and comprehensive support to bridge cultural and business gaps between the UK and China.

Another new Award category for 2024 was the ‘Scottish Corporate in Hong Kong 2024’, which was sponsored by InvestHK London. The winner was Museum Context Hong Kong: whose exciting new partnership with Edinburgh’s literary gem, Elephant House, will lead to the launch of Elephant House International Hong Kong in 2024: with a further USD $3 million investment going to create a unique immersive experience bringing together Museum Context’s Edinburgh merchandise with the story of the Elephant House and sharing this with the people of Hong Kong. 

‘Chinese Corporate of the Year’ was awarded to COES Caledonia (UK) Limited - a UK subsidiary of the Chinese maritime giant, the China Ocean Engineering Solutions Group (COES) – which has made significant investments in support of Scotland’s maritime sector. This investment in Scotland has been concentrated in state-of-the-art offshore construction engineering, heavy lift, deep sea dive, pipelay and subsea engineering new marine and offshore renewables vessels - totalling close to an incredible USD $1 Billion.

Another new category for this year’s ceremony was the ‘Dragon Award for Pioneering Spirit’ which was designed to recognise organisations pioneering partnerships between Scotland and China. Sponsored by Heriot-Watt University's Scottish Confucius Institute for Business and Communication, the Award went to Speech Graphics, who deliver pioneering facial animation technology to the entertainment industry. Over the past year, Speech Graphics has successfully deepened its connections between China and Scotland. Notably, establishing a partnership with GrowthEase, a leading provider of enterprise technology solutions in China. 2023 also saw the opening of the company’s Singapore office, and wider Asian market and China will remain a key pillar in the company’s global growth strategy going forwards. 

Finally, the ‘Educational Partnership of the Year’ Award went to the Zhejiang University - University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE). Established in 2016, ZJE is the University of Edinburgh’s flagship overseas institution for education and scientific research and is based in Haining, Zhejiang Province in China: a £1 billion investment providing purpose-built, state-of-the art research, teaching and accommodation and recreation facilities. The partnership facilitates an ambitious global biomedical research agenda between two well-matched world-leading universities, with a common vision to develop the next generation of biomedical scientists and support biomedical innovation.