West China: Why FDI Should Consider the Region

Op-Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Sept. 2 – Following the conclusion of our series of articles about investing in China’s western regions, I believe that foreign investors would do well to look at these emerging markets in China. As sales markets in the United States and Europe remain stagnant following the global recession and growth remains slow, China’s western regions offer a way out. For sure, they are emerging markets in their own right, and possess their own pricing and cultural sensitivities. Yet they also represent a huge potential market in terms of volumes. Read the rest of this entry »

New Foreign-managed Hotel to Open in Tibet

Sept. 2 – Beijing has approved the development of a new five star hotel in Tibet, the first to be developed there since the pull-out of the Lhasa Holiday Inn several years ago.

The hotel, to be built by listed company Tibetan Tourism, will be located in the remote town of Pai, in the beautiful Yarlung Tsangpo Valley, and is intended to be run by overseas management. The hotel is described as combining a conference center with a hotel and will be targeted at both domestic and international business users. The cost of the hotel is expected to run as high as US$14.7 million and will have 150 rooms. The construction and operations of the hotel are to be eco-friendly. Read the rest of this entry »

China Industry: Sept. 2

Sept. 2 – This is a regular series of relevant industry news from around China.

Air transport

China Southern Airlines will commence additional flights to Australia from October 31. The company will boost the number of daily flights between Guangzhou and Sydney from the current one to two. China Southern will also start flying seven times a week between Guangzhou and Melbourne, up from the current three flights a week. Read the rest of this entry »

New Special Economic Zone in Yili, Near Kazakhstan Border

Sept. 1 – China has ratified a new special economic zone in Yili, in northwestern Xinjiang near the border with Kazakhstan. The area is already China’s only Kazakh autonomous prefecture, populated mainly by ethnic Kazakhs. The prefecture has a total population of four million with about 500,000 living in the city of Yining, also known as Ghulja. The 200-square-kilometer zone will transform the nearby border port at Khorgas into a center for trade with Kazakhstan, including container transportation, processing facilities and the promotion of tourism in both Kazakhstan and Xinjiang. Read the rest of this entry »

CIRC Clarifies Local Insurance Clauses and Premiums for Property Insurance Companies

Sept. 1 – China’s insurance regulator recently clarified several issues regarding local insurance clauses and premiums related to property insurance companies.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued Baojiantingfa [2010] No. 61 on August 3, stipulating that all insurance companies will sort local insurance clauses and premiums, which were submitted to the local branches of the CIRC by their subsidiaries prior to April 1, 2010, and report to the CIRC for approval and registration before August 31, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

New Issue of China Briefing: Employment Overheads in China’s Social Security System

Sept. 1 – In the September issue of China Briefing we look at China’s social security regime and the five social insurance funds that enterprises in China must contribute to: pension, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, and occupational injury insurance.

We also look at the housing fund, another mandatory fund that both employers and employees contribute to. Because mandatory benefit requirements change from city to city, we compare and contrast 20 cities around China, introducing the proportions of salary that need to be contributed to social insurance in Dalian, Qingdao, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Shenyang, Tianjin, Chengdu, Suzhou, Xi’An, Changchun, Nanjing, Jinan, Kunming and Zhengzhou.

Read the rest of this entry »

Investing in Yunnan: ASEAN, Adventure Tourism, Myanmar and India’s Elephant in the Backyard

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Aug. 31 – Yunnan has always been an enigmatic province; encompassing four major Chinese minorities influenced by Vietnam, India, Burma and Tibet, and home to the very eastern end of the Himalayan ranges, it is never a simple region to categorize.

However, due to booming trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade area, the central government has begun to pay more attention to China’s most southwest province. The priority has been upgrading Yunnan’s transport links internationally in order to connect it to countries across the ASEAN region and to its provincial neighbors within China.

Read the rest of this entry »

SAT Clarifies Offset of Accumulative Losses after Cancellation of Consolidated CIT Payments

Aug. 31 – The State Administration of Taxation recently released a notice regarding the handling of corporate income tax on the accumulative loss of the previous years after the cancellation of consolidated payments, effective from January 1, 2009.

According to the notice, after canceling consolidated payments of CIT, a corporate group is allowed to allocate the accumulative loss until the end of 2008, which falls into the five-year carry-forward time-limit as stipulated by Article 18 of the CIT law. Read the rest of this entry »

Ningxia to Host China-Arab States Trade Forum

Aug. 30 – Yinchuan, the capital city of Ningxia, will host the first China-Arab Trade Forum in a bid to further align itself with Arabic investment in hopes of securing petro-dollar investments.

Yinchuan is an ancient Silk Road city with a strong population of Muslims, many of them Arabic and Persian descendants of early Silk Road travelers. The Bank of Ningxia launched an Islamic services unit last December, which applies Shariah law to lending practices. Since then, the unit has conducted more than RMB70 million worth of business, demonstrating that there is a market for such services. Read the rest of this entry »

SAT Clarifies Treatment of Land Appreciation Tax on Transfer of Certain Infrastructure

Aug. 30 – The State Administration of Taxation issued a tax circular late last month affirming that the transfer of certain infrastructure constructed on a piece of land is subject to land appreciation tax.

Issued in response to a request from the Xiamen municipal tax bureau, Guoshuihan [2010] No. 347 clarifies the treatment of land appreciation tax on the transfer of infrastructure, including pier parking lots and airport runways. Read the rest of this entry »

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