West China

Xinjiang to Become More Accessible for Foreign Investors

Mar. 28 – Xinjiang, the massive autonomous region in northwestern China offering many lucrative investment opportunities, is relaxing the approval procedures for foreign investors. Under the new policy, local authorities will gain more decision power and investors will find it easier to start up projects in the region.

This year, Xinjiang’s regional Development and Reform Commission has been empowered to approve foreign-invested projects with larger capital. Foreign-invested projects that belong to the “encouraged” and “permitted” categories in the “Catalogue for Foreign-Invested Industry Guidance” can proceed with the approval procedures directly through the local authority as long as the total investment capital (including capital increase) does not exceed US$100 million. Projects that belong to the “restricted” category can also go to the local authority directly for approval as long as the total capital (including capital increase) is no more than US$30 million. Continue reading →

Posted in FDI and Foreign Trade, Legal and Regulatory, Regulatory Update, West China | Leave a comment

Complimentary Reports Available from China Briefing

Dec. 24 – Over the past year we’ve released a number of complimentary reports. As its the festive season and we know our readers have been very good this year, we provide a one stop shop to each of them, complete with complimentary downloads just in case you missed them the first time around. They include reports on business in China, India, Vietnam, Russia and Emerging Asia, as well as industry guides, city guides, in-depth regional overviews in addition to tourism related material. We hope you enjoy them.

Happy New Year! Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Central China, Culture and History, East China, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade, Finance, Tax and Accounting, Legal and Regulatory, Northeast China, South China, West China | 1 Comment

Investments into Russia and Kazakhstan from China

New issue of Russia Briefing available for download

Ulf Schneider, Anna Bayda and Chris Devonshire-Ellis discuss China-Russia-Kazakhstan trade and related laws and taxes

Nov. 9 – Dezan Shira & Associates hosted their second Russia forum in Beijing yesterday with the assistance of the firms Beiten Burkhardt of Moscow and Kazakhstan Consulting of Almaty.

Presentations on the legal structures for establishing operations in both Russia and Kazakhstan were given by Anna Bayda and Ulf Schneider. They also touched on the structuring of contracts for trade in and with Russia and Kazakhstan and details of the tax regulations in both countries. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade, Northeast China, West China | 2 Comments

China’s Fastest Growing Provinces: The Demographics

Nov. 8 – At the recent Economist China Summit, Michael Koenig and Christophe Bezu, of Bayer and Adidas respectively, emphasized that Central China would experience renewed growth and development as per capita GDP and household disposable income increased at the same time that the coastal areas experienced a slowdown.

Last week, we featured the top five fastest growing cities in China, Hefei, Baotou, Shenyang, Changchun and Hohhot. Today, we look at the five of the emerging provinces: Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Hunan, Jilin, Hubei. It is no real surprise that they are all inland. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Central China, Culture and History, Economy and Politics, Northeast China, West China | 2 Comments

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. Continue reading →

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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. Continue reading →

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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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Business, FDI and Foreign Trade, West China | 2 Comments

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. Continue reading →

Posted in Economy and Politics, FDI and Foreign Trade, West China | Leave a comment