REGIONS

Huizhou Launches Enterprise Registration and Examination Reform

May 23 – The Huizhou government held a mobilization conference on May 17 to officially launch its enterprise registration and examination trial reform, which aims to “simplify what can be simplified; permit what can be permitted; accelerate what can be accelerated; and optimize what needs to be optimized.”

It is the first time that the Guangdong provincial government has approved the enterprise registration and examination reform to be trialed at the city-level. As a result, the Guangdong government has ordered the related departments at the provincial level to fully support and guide the trial reform in Huizhou. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update, South China | Tagged China Legal, China Reform, China Regulatory, Enterprise Registration and Examination Reform, Guangdong, Huizhou, Huizhou Trial Reform, South China | Leave a comment

China Customs Revises Hong Kong CEPA Ad Valorem Definition

Apr. 23 – On March 28, China’s General Administration of Customs decided to revise Article 6 of the “Provisions on the Implementation of the Rules of Origin for Trade in Goods under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between Mainland China and Hong Kong (haiguanzongshu No.107, modified under No. 142 and No. 198),” which is effective from April 1, 2012. Continue reading →

Posted in FDI and Foreign Trade, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update, South China | Tagged Ad Valorem, CEPA, Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, Hong Kong | Leave a comment

2012 Annual Compliance Reports for Shenzhen Representative Offices

Apr. 16 – According to the new “Regulations on the Registration and Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign-Invested Enterprises (guowuyuanling No.584)” (Regulations), representative offices (ROs) of FIEs registered and established before December 31, 2011 are required to submit the annual compliance report to the local registrars before June 30, 2012. Those who failed to file the report will be penalized according to Article 38 of the Regulation. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Economy and Politics, Legal and Regulatory, South China | Tagged Administration of Industry and Commerce, Annual Compliance, FIEs, Guowuyuanling No.584, Representative Offices, Shenzhen, South China | Leave a comment

Guangdong Streamlines the Registration Process for Foreign-Funded Companies

Apr. 11 – According to the Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province and Guangdong Province Administration of Industry and Commerce (Guangdong AIC), a new streamlined registration and approval process for foreign-funded companies will be run across nine cities along the Pearl River Delta. The newly revamped procedures are currently being trialed in Dongguan, Foshan, and Guangzhou.

The discussion of streamlining the approval procedure came out of an article published in the Nan Fang Daily about the lengthy and complicated process a foreign-funded company went through to get registered in Guangdong. From the registration of the company name to the final approval, the company had to get permission from at least 10 different departments. Due to the number of government agencies involved in the process and the disjunction between them, the process could take up to one year or longer. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update, South China | Tagged Dongguan, Foshan, Guangdong, Guangdong Administration of Industry and Commerce, Guangzhou, Registration, South China, State Administration of Industry and Commerce | Leave a comment

South China’s Gaolan Port Economic Development Zone Promoted to NETDZ

Apr. 10 – In late March, China’s State Council approved the promotion of the Gaolan Port Economic Development Zone to become the first national economic and technology development zone (NETDZ) on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta. The newly-promoted zone has been named the “Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone.”

Gaolan is roughly 83 kilometers away from Hong Kong, 42 kilometers from Macao, 150 kilometers from Guangzhou, and 180 kilometers from Shenzhen. The 380-square-kilometer Gaolan Port Economic Development Zone was established in 2006 by the government, with the municipal-level administrative authorities and independent financial management power. It is one of the most important large-scale comprehensive harbor industry zones of South China, with a focus on the equipment manufacturing, petrochemical and energy industries. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, Shipping & Logistics, South China | Tagged Development Zones, Gaolan, Gaolan Port Economic Development Zone, South China, Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone | Leave a comment

Shanghai Issues Trial Procedures for Consolidated CIT Payments by Headquarters

Mar. 23 – Shanghai’s state and local tax bureaus have issued the “Trial Procedures on the Filing of the Allocation Proportion of Consolidated CIT Payments by Headquarters in Shanghai (huguoshuisuo [2010] No. 10)” (“Trial Procedures”) on March 10, 2012. The Trial Procedures apply to headquarters in Shanghai that operate trans-regionally and pay CIT on a consolidated basis. It provides for the materials that these headquarters should submit for the filing of branches’ allocation proportion of CIT.

The Trial Procedures have been issued based on the “Interim Measures for the Administration of the Collection of Consolidated Payment of Corporate Income Tax (CIT) in Trans-Regional Operations (guoshuifa [2008] No.28)” (“Interim Measures”) issued by the State Administration of Taxation on March 10, 2008. Continue reading →

Posted in East China, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update | Tagged China Corporate Income Tax, China Headquarters, China Tax, Shanghai | Leave a comment

China’s Headquarters Economy: A New Path towards Industrial Upgradation

By Vivian Ni

Mar. 15 – China, the world’s largest production base, is no longer satisfied with lying at the lower levels of global supply chains and holding just the manufacturing arms of MNCs. Instead, the country has begun offering a warmer welcome to foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) that actually bring their “brains.” Foreign-invested headquarters (HQs) functioning in the realm of management, investment as well as research and development (R&D) are burgeoning in China’s major cities, and have impacted significantly on both city functions and human resource movements.

China’s headquarters economy
An HQ economy is defined as being sufficiently resource-rich to attract a cluster of corporate HQs. Not only does it improve the operational efficiency of FIEs by gathering the most knowledge-intensive segments of corporate value chains in “center cities,” it also brings desirable economic benefits to its surrounding areas by optimizing resource distributions among different regions and industrial chains. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, East China, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade | Tagged Beijing Headquarters, China Headquarters Economy, China Human Resources, China Multinational Corporations, Shanghai Headquarters | Leave a comment

AmCham South China 2012 Special Business Report

“2012 Special Report on the State of Business in South China” and “White Paper” on the business environment in China now available

GUANGZHOU, Mar. 2 – The American Chamber of Commerce in South China launched its annual “2012 Special Report on the State of Business in South China” as well as its “White Paper” covering the business environment across China on February 28, 2012.

The special report, released for the past seven consecutive years, details the results of a survey conducted by AmCham South China among the association’s members with the aim of reporting the pulse of the current economic situation throughout the region. Additionally, the report presents in-depth economic overviews of Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong and Macau provided by the foreign investment consulting firm Dezan Shira & Associates.

AmCham South China estimates that its members will reinvest a minimum of US$10 billion over the course of this year and notes that 85 percent of study participants consider the business environment to be good, very good or excellent. Furthermore, the Chamber estimates that its member companies hired approximately 544,000 new individuals over the course of 2011. Continue reading →