The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) and The Conference Board organized a briefing focused on: “The Long Soft Fall in Chinese Growth”.

The briefing session will took place on 21 January 2015 at the offices of the The Conference Board in Brussels.

Business Realities, Risks, and Opportunities
Is the China slowdown over? Absent reforms that resolve China’s productivity and debt challenges, The Conference Board expects a “soft fall” to growth of about 4 percent by 2020, including negative growth for certain sectors and regions. While there is tremendous potential for reform, political challenges make bold action difficult.

Following an introduction by Bert De Graeve, Chairman, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce; Chairman, Bekaert, David Hoffman, Vice President and Managing Director of The Conference Board China Center, detailed what this transition will likely entail, the research and analysis behind our estimate, the possible directions China’s leaders could take, and what it all means for multinationals operating in China.

Carmaker BYD, partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said it was hard to sell Chinese-made electric vehicles overseas, while laying out plans to start a trial run of electric cars for rent in Hong Kong. “We had a bitter experience promoting our products in overseas markets,” said Liu Xueliang, General Manager of BYD Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Group. “Made-in-China products often go unrecognized and unrewarded in many countries,” Liu said. BYD’s electric vehicles have been used or put on test runs in 106 cities across 33 countries and regions. The company’s progress in Hong Kong has been slow. In 2013, Chairman Wang Chuanfu said he expected BYD to launch dozens of e6 electric cars in the city as taxis by the end of that year, and predicted the number would grow to 1,000 by 2014 and 3,000 by 2015. As of today, there are only 45 e6 cabs in Hong Kong. Liu said BYD had picked Hong Kong to be the first city in the Asia-Pacific region to run a trial of its car rental business. BYD also planned to launch three hybrid SUV models this year.

China will expand the favorable visa policies of its 1,000 Talent Plan to dozens of other programs nationwide to attract leading professionals to work in the country. This move is expected to ease one of the top concerns of foreign talent in China. “In the past, we have had a very strict policy and high standards in terms of ‘exit and entry’, and the number of overseas talents in China is not that large,” an official from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said. “However, the 1,000 Talent Plan is a convenient channel. Now this channel is also open to experts from 55 programs. This will help to forge a diversified talent recruitment network.” Foreign experts recruited through the 55 programs can apply for visas, residence permits and permanent residence－also called Chinese green cards－under the same standard for experts recruited by the national Recruitment Program of Global Experts, or the 1,000 Talent Plan. The various programs are offered by seven ministries, 21 provinces, 12 cities and one centrally-administered enterprise. “Compared with other countries’ permanent residence policies, I think the Chinese government still has to expand the scale instead of just focusing on talent programs,” Wang Huiyao, President of the Center for China and Globalization said, as reported by the China Daily.

China’s large state-owned banks are planning to offer a range of financial products in global markets, as more Chinese companies move into foreign markets. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) provided financial support worth USD22 billion to help Chinese companies expand their businesses in 46 countries and regions by the end of June 2014. The companies covered more than 10 major sectors. Last year, the lender also arranged a syndicated loan of USD7 billion for a Chinese consortium that agreed to invest USD10.6 billion to buy and construct Glencore Xstrata’s Las Barmbas copper mine project in Peru. As of June 30, ICBC had 331 overseas institutions in 40 countries and regions. Its agent banks covered 146 countries and regions, with foreign-funded agent banks amounting to 1,767. The total assets of the bank’s overseas institutions had reached USD232.5 billion, up 11.1% from the beginning of 2014. Net profit of the overseas institutions increased 41% year-on-year to USD1.2 billion and their non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was only 0.48%, well below the entire bank’s NPL ratio of 0.99%. With the transformation of the Chinese economy, companies that expand their business overseas are setting higher requirements for banks, which are still lagging behind in terms of globalization, the China Daily reports. As of September 30, Bank of China had supported 1,332 “going global” projects of Chinese companies and promised to offer loans totaling USD115.2 billion, rising 32% from the end of 2013.

HSBC China and Nanyang Commercial Bank China are in the first batch of overseas banks approved to open free trade accounts for clients in the Shanghai free trade zone (FTZ). HSBC China signed agreements with more than 30 pharmaceutical, energy and automobile companies which intend to use the new FT accounts for more efficient cross-border transactions between the FTZ and overseas markets. Banks are required to connect their FT account systems with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), which can then monitor all transactions as required under risk management rules. A total of 13 domestic banks and the Shanghai Gold Exchange have been approved in three batches to conduct FT account services. Nanyang Commercial Bank is solely-owned by the Bank of China (Hong Kong) and is registered as an overseas bank on the Chinese mainland.