The festive departure of the Flax Road will be held on Saturday, 11 May 2013 at 10:30 h. at Vyncke in Harelbeke and at 15 h. at Viavia Reiscafé in Mechelen.

The Flax Road is an initiative of 18 Flemish pioneers who travel the 15,000 kilometer from Flanders to China in two expeditions: from May 11 to June 22, they explore Transcaucasia and Central Asia, where the energy map of the world is being drawn; and after the summer break, from September 8 till October 18, the focus is on western China, motor of the new Silk Road, a land corridor from China’s East Coast to the terminus Antwerp. The Flax Road relates to the Silk Road, along which not only goods were transported, but also ideas and convictions were exchanged between East and West.

10:30 h. at Vyncke, Gentsesteenweg 224, 8530 Harelbeke, with a Representative of the Chinese Embassy; Carl Decaluwé, Governor of the Province of West-Flanders; Michel Delbaere, National Chairman of VOKA; Hans Maertens, Director VOKA West-Flanders and Frédéric Douchy Managing Director Procotex.

Programme: 10:30 h. till 12:30 h.:

• The initiative: Vyncke for another 100 years by Mr. Dirk Vyncke, Pater Familias of Vyncke and the Flax Road
• Flax, yesterday, today and tomorrow by Mr. Frédéric Douchy, Managing Director Procotex
• Harelbeke’s springboard to the world by Mr. Alain Top, Mayor of Harelbeke
• Reception followed by the festive departure of the Flax Road convoy

Please confirm your attendance by e-mail to ltr@vyncke.com

15 h. at Viavia Reiscafé Mechelen, Zandpoortvest 50, 2800 Mechelen.

Programme from 15 h. till 16.30 h.:

• From Viavia Mechelen to Viavia Chengdu, by Bob Elsen, CEO Joker and co-founder of vlasroute.be
• Cosmopolitan Mechelen by Mayor Bart Somers
• Flemish in action by Minister President Kris Peeters
• Snacks and drinks followed by the departure of the Flax Road convoy

Registration: Dries Caems dries.caems@viaviacafe.com.
Map: http://www.viaviacafe.com/nl/content/wiewaar-1

The Vlasroute.be is the initiative of a cohort of spirited and experienced entrepreneurs who will travel overland from Belgium to China by jeep, 15,000 km from (Vyncke) Harelbeke over the Trans-Caucasus lands and through Central Asia to (Vyncke) Suzhou. The Flax Road from Flanders to China symbolically intertwines with the Silk Road.  Much more than durable goods travel along these paths: ideas, technology and convictions are exchanged between East and West.  The ‘Vlasroute’ is not a trade mission or rally. The purpose is to engage in a convivial dialogue with pacesetters on the spot; and to put the Trans-Caucasus, Central Asia and West China on the knowledge map of enterprising Flanders.

The Flax Road to Silk Road Overland will be travelled in two expeditions of each 5-6 weeks and about 7500 km.
– A first expedition tours from Harelbeke to the Caucasus and Central Asia, from the 11th of May until the 22nd of June. The Flax Road crosses Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, over the Caspian Sea to Stan-lands with iconic Silk Road cities: Turkmenistan (Merv), Uzbekistan (Samarkand, Bukhara) and Kyrgyzstan (Fergana Valley). We cross the border to Almaty (Kazakhstan) where the vehicles will be checked during the summer leave.
– The second expedition resumes on the 8th of September in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and lasts until the 17th of October (Suzhou, China east coast). We travel through Kyrgyzstan onto Kashgar (Xinjiang Autonomic Region) and cross China’s West: the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi and Sichuan. Xian in Shaanxi, famous for its terracotta army, was the capital of the empire during the prime days of the Silk Road. The western Chengdu-Chongqing Economical Zone is part of the industrial top in China.

Contact: Lutgart Dusar, lutgart.dusar@lscoop.com, tel.+32477 276977 www.vlasroute.be

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, Ghent University and the Province of East Flanders organized a networking evening with Chinese talent studying at Ghent University  at the Provinciaal Administratief Centrum (PAC) in Ghent. The networking event presented the opportunity to introduce companies to Chinese students. Mr Patrick Meirlaen, Managing Partner at The Future Alliance and Partner at the International Executive Search Federation (IESF) talked about “Strategies for finding an employer in Europe”. Participating companies were presented, followed by networking between students and business leaders. The event was concluded by a networking reception hosted by the Province of East Flanders. The evening was organized with the support of Flanders Investment & Trade.

Last year the Chinese economy expanded by 7.7%, a rate of growth largely seen as a continued ‘slowdown’. How did your company perform by comparison? The results of the 2013 Sino-Belgian Business Survey set the performance of Belgian companies in the right context. When we talk about the growth of Belgian businesses in China are we comparing apples and pears? Equally importantly, how do Belgian businesses feel about the future of their business in China? Moore Stephens Verschelden, together with the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) and the Benelux Chamber of Commerce organized a discussion on the results of this year’s survey with a panel of leading business figures and independent experts on 24 April 2013, 17h at KBC Bank in Brussels.

Following an introduction by Mr Philippe Snel, Chairman Bencham Shanghai, a panel discussion was held, moderated by Mr Andries Verschelden, Partner Moore Stephens Verschelden. The panelists included Mr Tim Van den Bossche, Vice President Global Marketing & Strategy, Agfa Graphics; Mr Filip Goris, Regional Manager China & India, Recticel; Mr Wim Buyens, Senior Vice President Projection Division, Barco; and Mr Thomas Baert, Owner & CEO, Chinafloors. A Q&A session and networking reception concluded the event.

China will strengthen regulations on wealth management products to reduce financial risks, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in report. Wealth management products carry higher interest returns than traditional deposits and are widely used by banks to finance projects such as real estate and infrastructure construction – projects for which normal bank loans are difficult to obtain. There were CNY7.1 trillion worth of outstanding wealth management products by the end of last year, the CBRC said. That marks a 13-time increase from the CNY500 billion in 2007. ‘‘Generally the individual investments in the instruments account for 62% of that total, while institutional investors and private banking customers account for 32% and 6% respectively,’’ the CBRC said. The defaults of such instruments last year have alerted the CBRC to risks not only to the depositors who are major investors but also to the nation’s financial system as a whole. The CBRC has unveiled new measures to rein in the rapidly-growing business by ordering lenders to keep separate accounts for each product and set aside capital as a buffer for potential losses. Banks are also ordered to check the underlying assets of the wealth management products, and to keep such assets to 35% of the banks’ total outstanding products, or 4% of their total assets, whichever is lower.

Illegal trading of bonds on the interbank market is being targeted by law enforcement authorities and financial regulators. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) held a meeting with the heads of commercial banks to discuss the control of illegal bond transactions. Details of the meeting were not known, but it is believed that commercial banks were told to step up policing of trading activities and examine trading histories. According to bond traders, illegal transactions involving government and corporate debt at the Shanghai-based China Foreign Exchange Trade System, known as the interbank market, were rampant as unethical fund managers took advantage of regulatory loopholes to make money. In a typical case, a member of the interbank market would sell bonds to an affiliated institution at an artificially low price before the affiliate resells the bonds to another at a premium based on a fair market price. The affiliated institutions are normally run by the fund managers’ relatives or friends to help pocket illicit gains. Analysts liken the institutions to “rat-trade” accounts on the stock market, a term given to brokerage accounts opened by fund managers’ relatives which are used by the fund managers themselves to trade shares. Gong Zhenhua, Partner with the Shanghai law firm Ronghe, said that the Supreme Court might need to clarify what crimes these rogue traders have committed before the prosecutors bring lawsuits against them.