Prime Minister Charles Michel meets Chinese President and Premier
Oct-31-2016 By : fcccadmin
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel arrived in China on October 30 for a two-day official visit. He had lunch at the Belgian Embassy with China’s richest person, Dalian Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin, and other Chinese businessmen to introduce Belgium’s investment climate and attract Chinese investments. In the afternoon, several contracts and agreements were signed, including one by brewery Hughe to distribute its delirium tremens beer in China. Hainan Airlines agreed to launch direct flights between Shanghai and Brussels. About 20 agreements were signed during Prime Minister Michel’s visit to China, including on juridicial cooperation between Belgium and China. Companies which signed agreements include Barco, Besix, DEME, Nagelmaekers, Projectbuilders, Proximus, and the Port of Zeebrugge. The new Sino-Belgian technology center in Louvain-la-Neuve also signed an agreement. The Prime Minister delivered the keynote speech at the China-Belgium Economic Forum organized by the Belgian Embassy and Anbang Insurance Group. He also met the Belgian community in Beijing at a garden party at the Embassy and paid a visit to the Ullens Center of Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing’s 798 area.
On October 31, Prime Minister Michel had official meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. The Chinese President called on Belgium to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as soon as possible, and seize the opportunity of the Belt and Road construction to push forward the development of the China-Europe logistics industry and cross-border e-commerce cooperation. China and Belgium should enhance cooperation in high-tech and high added-value areas, including advanced manufacturing, new energy, environmental protection and the modern service industry, Xi said. “The consensuses I reached with Belgium leaders in the past two years have been fully implemented, and the China-Belgium relationship is progressing steadily in the direction set by the two sides,” the China Daily quoted President Xi Jinping as saying. Prime Minister Michel told Xi that Belgium was willing to expand cooperation with China in areas including the legislature, investment, innovation, aerospace, the new energy digital economy, and infrastructure.
Beijing to reduce license plates available annually by a third
By : fcccadmin
Beijing is to slash the number of license plates it hands out for new cars by one-third in an effort to ease traffic congestion and pollution. Some people are buying struggling small businesses that hold vehicle registrations to avoid having to enter the capital’s license plate lottery. Currently there are 150,000 plates available every year – 90,000 for gas-powered vehicles and 60,000 for new-energy vehicles. However, from 2018, only 100,000 will be available per year, Zhou Zhengyu, Director of the Beijing Transport Commission said. The aim is to limit the number of cars in Beijing to 6.3 million by 2020. At the latest lottery, just one in every 754 entrants received a plate.
Rich Chinese expats prefer U.S. West Coast
By : fcccadmin
The western United States remains the most popular area for China’s super-rich to settle down abroad, with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle the top three locations. Seattle’s popularity has risen for two years and exceeded New York to become one of the top cities where wealthy Chinese would like to invest in properties and emigrate to, according to a new report co-released by the Hurun Research Institute and immigration agency Visas Consulting Group. On average, overseas investments accounted for 15% of respondents’ total wealth, and spreading financial risks has become their chief concern. More than 60% of China’s richest people plan to invest in properties abroad in the next three years.
China’s tax authorities to target non-residents
By : fcccadmin
The State Administration of Taxation (SAT) wants to collect financial information of non-residents who live in China as it takes part in a multilateral scheme to crack down on tax shelters. By exchanging information with other countries, China will be able to levy taxes on overseas financial assets, which means the days of not paying tax on foreign assets will soon end. SAT released a draft plan on October 14, in which financial institutions will be required to perform due diligence on financial accounts of foreign residents in tax matters according to Common Reporting Standard released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OESO), aiming to help other nations protect their tax income. The move comes after China signed a multilateral agreement in December last year, which provides a mechanism to facilitate the automatic exchange of information in tax matters with other participating countries. The practice is set to start from January next year for all new financial accounts and the information collected will be exchanged with other participating countries, with the first exchange to take place in September 2018. China aims to complete due diligence on existing accounts of individuals with assets exceeding CNY6 million and companies with assets exceeding CNY1.5 million by the end of next year. Information collection on other accounts will be completed by the end of 2018. While China will hand the information to other countries, it will also get information on Chinese nationals’ overseas accounts. “For Chinese individuals, the move will enable the government to have necessary information to levy taxes on their overseas assets,” said Ye Weiwen at Deloitte in Hong Kong. “It signals that the days of paying no tax to the government on overseas income will end soon, especially for high net worth individuals.” The news comes as an increasing number of Chinese nationals are seeking to transfer their assets overseas, given the sharp depreciation of the yuan, the South China Morning Post reports.
Five of top 10 global fin tech firms are Chinese
By : fcccadmin
China cemented its status as a leading international force in financial technology services this year, claiming five of the top 10 spots in the annual list of the world’s major companies in the sector. The list was compiled by the United Kingdom-based advisory firm KPMG and Australian investment company H2 Ventures. China’s Ant Financial, which owns and operates the country’s largest online payment platform, Alipay, topped the 100 Leading Fintech Innovators 2016 list. Student micro-loan site Qudian, formerly known as Qufenqi, was second, internet-based lending and wealth management platform Lufax ranked fourth, online insurance business ZhongAn was fifth, and internet financial services provider JDFinance was 10th. Financial technology companies are ranked based on four factors: total capital raised, rate of capital raising, location, and degree of sub-industry disruption. In the first quarter of the year, financial technology companies in China attracted USD2.4 billion from venture capital companies in nine deals, or 49% of the USD4.98 billion in investment recorded globally in the sector.
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