FDI and Foreign Trade

Citibank Permitted to Issue Credit Cards in China

Greater market access to China’s banking industry on the road ahead?

Feb. 8 – U.S.-based financial services corporation Citigroup announced on Monday that it has obtained government approval to issue its own credit cards in China. It is hoped that Beijing’s recent decision indicates that the country will be more willing to open up its banking industry to foreign financial institutions in the near future.

Citigroup – operating 13 corporate bank branches and 46 consumer outlets in the world’s most populous nation – is the first Western bank authorized to issue credit cards in Mainland China. Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, the only other non-mainland credit card issuer in the country, was allowed to tap into the China market back in 2008. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Finance, Tax and Accounting | Tagged China Banking, China e-Payment Market, Citibank China Credit Cards, Citigroup | Leave a comment

Top 50 Chinese Cities by Investment Potential

By Julia Gu

Feb. 3 – At the eighth annual World Famous Brands Assembly (WFBA) recently held in Jakarta, Indonesia, the U.S.-China Economic Trade and Investment General Chamber of Commerce, the Europe-America-Asia Cooperation Union for Investment in Industry and Commerce, and the World Cities and World Business Research Association jointly released a list of the “2011 Top 50 Chinese Cities with Strongest Investment Potential.” Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade | Tagged Beijing, China Cities, China FDI, China GDP, China Trade, Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Zhengzhou | Leave a comment

Twitter – When Freedom of Speech Collides with Business Interests

By Vivian Ni

Feb. 3 – Twitter, the U.S.-based micro-blogging service provider, has recently found itself at the receiving end of criticism due to its new policy that will allow content censorship on a country-by-country basis. The policy adjustment may have revealed Twitter’s interest in returning to the cash-flowing Chinese market, where the government implements strict internet censorship regulations and blocks an array of Western social media web sites.

In a blog post last Thursday, Twitter said that it had refined its technology and gained “the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country – while keeping it available in the rest of the world.” Previously, when the company took down a post at the request of a country’s government, the “tweet” invariably disappeared across the worldwide web. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Technology | Tagged China Freedom of Speech, China Internet Censorship, China Online Information Filtering, China Social Media, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Censorship Policy, Weibo | Leave a comment

China Announces Import Tax Treatment to ‘Encouraged’ Foreign-Invested Projects

Feb. 2 – In Announcement [2012] No. 4 released on January 29, the Chinese General Administration of Customs clarified the favorable import tax treatment to “encouraged” foreign-invested projects (FIPs).

Starting on January 30, FIPs (including capital increases to FIPs) listed in the “encouraged” category in the “Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalog (2011 Version)” (“2011 FDI Catalog”) are exempt from customs duties when investors import equipment (for self use) and technology, accessories as well as spare parts that come along with the equipment based on related agreements. However, these importers are still subject to import value-added tax, which was resumed on such imports in 2009. Continue reading →

Posted in FDI and Foreign Trade, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update | Tagged China Customs Duty, China FDI, China General Administration of Customs, China Import Taxes, China Import VAT, China Tax | Leave a comment

Relax. South China Exports and Manufacturers are Doing Just Fine

Op/Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Feb. 1 – With some media spotlighting potential problems in South China – and one blog even going so far as to suggest smart Chinese businessmen are queuing up to attract orders, only to deliberately declare bankruptcy – it’s time to look again at the realities of the situation. The actual business environment in South China is something we are qualified to discuss with some knowledge – our firm, Dezan Shira & Associates, has four regional offices there (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhongshan) and has conducted business in the region for 20 years, while our Regional Partner Alberto Vettoretti is an adviser to the Shenzhen Government. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Manufacturing, South China | Tagged China Exports, China Manufacturing, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Dezan Shira & Associates, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, South China, Zhongshan | 9 Comments

WTO Orders China to Remove Export Restrictions on Industrial Minerals

Will rare earths be next?

By Vivian Ni

Feb. 1 – Following two years of investigation, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Appellate Body ruled on Monday that China’s use of export duties and quotas on nine types of industrial materials has breached free trade rules. The ruling could affect the organization’s judging of other similar cases where export restrictions are used to hoard domestic natural resources.

The case, filed in 2009 by the United States, the European Union (EU) and Mexico, accused China of imposing trade barriers to the exports of nine minerals: bauxite, zinc, yellow phosphorus, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide and silicon metal, all of which are widely applied in industrial production. Continue reading →

Posted in Chemical & Pharmaceutical, FDI and Foreign Trade | Tagged China Export, China Rare Earths, China Raw Materials, China US Trade Disputes, China WTO | Leave a comment

China 1992, India 2012

Above: Shanghai c. 1990, Below: Mumbai c. 2008

The development similarities are striking, says Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Op/Ed Commentary: Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Jan. 31 – A little over 20 years ago, I was sitting in the offices of Asia Law & Practice in Hong Kong, with their managing director at the time who said, “Don’t go to China, Chris. It’s dirty, communist, nothing works and they’ll rip you off.”

Perhaps foolishly, I didn’t listen to that advice, resigning my position (I’d been working on a book called “The Life and Death of a Joint Venture in Shanghai”) and decamping to Shenzhen to start what was then a very embryonic Dezan Shira & Associates. The MD’s words of advice have stayed with me ever since, not because they were wrong – in fact he was fairly accurate – but because they totally discounted the point that China wouldn’t remain in that anti-commercial state of existence for very long. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Featured, Markets | Tagged China Development, China FDI, China India Comparison, India Development, India FDI, India Opportunities | 2 Comments

China’s Provincial GDP Figures in 2011

Two-thirds of China’s provinces report GDP figures over RMB1 trillion (US$158 billion) in 2011

By Julia Gu

Jan. 27 – Preliminary statistics show that China’s GDP grew at a robust 9.2 percent in 2011 to RMB47.16 trillion (US$7.26 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said last week at a press conference.

While this rate represents a drop of 1.2 percent compared to the 10.4 percent GDP growth experienced in 2010, last year’s growth rate was still 1.2 percent above the 8 percent year-on-year growth target set at the beginning of 2011. Continue reading →