Weekly Highlights:
- State Council Release Notice on Several Measures for Promoting Foreign Investment Growth
- Meeting to Discuss Shanghai's Innovation Initiative
- Chamber Provides Recommendations on Beijing Business Environment Evaluation System
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State Council Release Notice on Several Measures for Promoting Foreign Investment Growth | On 16th August, the State Council released the Notice of the State Council on Several Measures for Promoting Foreign Investment Growth (Notice). Its release follows a slight decline of foreign direct investment into China during the first seven months of 2017. The European Chamber has translated the Notice and a full English version is available to members upon request.
While the European Chamber is pleased by much of the tone and focus of the Notice, concrete implementation is required. Specifically, the calls for detailed timetables and roadmaps for achieving openness in individual industries, which were lacking from previous State Council notices, are commendable. The pledges to step up protection for foreign-invested enterprises’ intellectual property, establish a nationwide work permit system for foreign talent working in China and improve visa processing are also warmly welcomed.
At the same time, the Chamber sees a potential contradiction between the commitments to speed up the harmonisation of laws and regulations for domestic and foreign capital and the decision for Negative Lists on foreign investment that have been piloted in Free Trade Zones to be rolled out nationwide – the latter approach maintains a fundamental distinction between domestic and foreign capital. The Chamber will continue to engage in dialogue with the Chinese authorities in order to understand this and other issues, as well as to provide feedback on how the Notice can be effectively implemented. | | | | Meeting to Discuss Shanghai's Innovation Initiative | On 17th August, Mr Li Wan, Vice Dean of the Shanghai Institute of Science for Science, together with officials from the Shanghai Commerce Department, Research and Development Commission, and Science and Technology Commission, visited the European Chamber's Shanghai Chapter to discuss with members recent developments of the Shanghai Innovation Centre initiative. Mr Serafino Bartolozzi, Board member of European Chamber Shanghai Chapter, and Dr Ioana Kraft, General Manager of the Shanghai Chapter, welcomed the delegation and highlighted the major barriers to expanding the foreign research and development (R&D) centres in Shanghai. | | | | Chamber Provides Recommendations on Beijing Business Environment Evaluation System | The Foreign Investment Development Department of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce hosted a meeting on 17th August to discuss the evaluation system of Beijing's business environment. Several members of the European Chamber provided feedback and recommendations. Director Meng Jie of the Foreign Investment Development Department indicated this was a follow-up to the 16th Conference of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs that took place on 17th July. She indicated that both the central and Beijing municipal governments are working very hard to further improve the business environment, especially for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). | | | |
| By Gregory Zdaniuk, ENGIE China’s rapid growth has led to high levels of air pollution. While there are many contributors, burning solid fuels to heat buildings has directly contributed to the dangerous decline in air quality. Gregory Zdaniuk, Senior Engineering Manager at ENGIE China, describes how wet combustion can reduce harmful emissions and increase efficiency in the Chinese heating sector. | | | | Selling Software and Providing IT Services to China: Regulations and Practice | Guideline | The development of new technologies, or the transfer of new technologies from abroad, remains a focus for the Chinese Government. Software and internet technology (IT) services are an important part of this highly encouraged area. However, EU SMEs encounter numerous issues when entering the Chinese market such as, entering the market in the most effective way possible, operating without losing ownership or control over developed technology, or obtaining the necessary permits. To find out how to address those issues take a look to our guideline here. | | | |
▍Upcoming Events and Training
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Events August 2017 September 2017 | | | Chamber supported events August 2017 | | | Training August 2017 September 2017 | | | Working Group meetings August 2017 September 2017 | | |
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