The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce organized a lunch meeting with a delegation from the Department of Commerce of Qingdao and leading Qingdao companies on 24 November at Mubart in Ghent.

Representatives from Qingdao’s Bureau of Commerce and leading companies offered an insight into the economic and investment environment of Qingdao. Business leaders from major brands such as Tsingtao Brewery Group and Shandong Electronic Power Corporation took part in this luncheon.

Following a welcome speech by Ms Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, and the viewing of the Qingdao Presentation Video, Mr Xing Lizhi, Director, Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Commerce delivered the keynote speech on promoting cooperation on trade and investment.

Lunch and networking with the delegation followed.

The composition of the delegation can be viewed via the following link.

If you are interested to obtain a Qingdao Investment guide, send an e-mail to: info@flanders-china.be

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and Flanders Investment & Trade organized a seminar focused on ‘Immigration for Chinese Professionals in Belgium’ on 22 November 2017 at Flanders Investment & Trade in Brussels.

The conference provided the participants a better understanding of the regulations regarding professional cards and family reunification.

Following a word of welcome by Ms. Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and Ms. Lothe Verstraete, Deputy Director Inward Investment Greater China, Flanders Investment & Trade, Mrs. Karen Cambré, Head Economic Migration Flemish Brabant and Limburg, Flemish Government introduced the topic “How to apply for a professional card in Flanders?”

Mr. Wouter Ottevaere, Head Economic Migration, Flemish Government, gave a short overview of work permits: typology and applications.

Family reunification was presented by Mr. David Rans, Attaché Federal Public Service – Home Affairs, Department of Immigrant Affairs, Visa Family Reunification.

A networking lunch concluded the event.

China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) have signed a new comprehensive strategic partnership agreement on November 23 with the aim of strengthening cooperation between the two offices, providing better services for global intellectual property users and contributing to improvements in the world’s IP system. The partnership between the two offices evolved from a technical to a strategic one, EPO President Benoit Battistelli said in Beijing.

“SIPO and the EPO are equal partners sharing similar views and objectives for the development of the global IP system,” said Battistelli. These objectives include the highest quality and legal certainty for granted patents, efficient and informed use of the patent system, optimized resources deployment, improved efficiency of patent search and examination tools, and more interaction with users and the industry to provide more professional services, he said. “I’m very impressed by the progress that China has made in recent years and the quality of the granted patents in China,” Battistelli added.“Within a few years, SIPO has become a leading office in the world.”

SIPO, the EPO, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office – known as the IP5 in the industry – are the world’s five largest patent administrations, representing roughly 85% of global patent applications. More than 2,000 Chinese patent examiners and other related professionals have been trained at the EPO, and the EPO has helped SIPO use tools in patent search and examination. SIPO and the EPO have developed “common positions” in their joint effort to simplify and improve the patent granting procedure. One example is the Global Dossier, a public service that enables users to monitor via a single online source how a family of patent applications is progressing at the IP5 offices. EPO and SIPO have been the first two offices to implement the Global Dossier.

Last year, Chinese companies applied for 7,150 patents at the EPO, accounting for about 5% of the total applications and ranking No 6 among all origins. The number showed the strongest growth of 24.8% among the top 10 leading countries at the EPO, making China “the main driver of growth in applications at the EPO”, according to the office’s 2016 annual report. With 2,390 applications, Chinese IT giant Huawei moved two places ahead to become the second-largest patent applicant at the EPO last year, only after Philips. Also last year, Chinese companies were granted 2,513 patents from the EPO, up 78.7%, the China Daily reports.

The Unitary Patent system will be applied next year, making it possible to get patent protections in 26 European Union members by submitting a single request to the EPO. It will not only simplify patent granting procedures, but also cut the application costs by 70%.

China will cut import tariffs on some consumer products by 9.6 percentage points beginning in December, as a measure to satisfy increasingly diversified domestic demand and to facilitate consumption upgrade, the Ministry of Finance said. The reduction of import tariffs will affect 187 tariff codes, including on food, health supplements, pharmaceuticals, garments and recreational products, and the average rate will decrease to 7.7% from 17.3%.

A tariff on some infant formula and milk powder products will fall from 20% to zero, not including standard infant milk formula. Duties on diapers will drop from 7.5% to zero. In 2015, the government lowered the tariffs on consumer products including certain apparel, footwear, skin care products and diapers, which dropped by more than 50% on average.

The cut is in line with the country’s policy to lower tariff barriers and its intention to boost domestic consumption of consumer goods. Ouyang Cheng, Director of the Alibaba Cross-Border E-Commerce Research Center, said the reduction of import tariffs indicated the Chinese government’s determination to support globalization and call for further opening-up, despite a rise in trade protectionism and anti-globalization around the world. The reduction will help to expand China’s imports and also
provide more choices for Chinese consumers, the China Daily reports.

But the tariff cuts are bad news for overseas shopping agents or daigou who resell items they buy abroad to consumers in China, undercutting conventional importers who are subject to full tariffs on their products. “The tax cuts will add to the advantage of e-commerce operations over the online shopping agents,” said Cao Lei, Director of Hangzhou-based China Electronic Commerce Research Center. “Imports through general trade are much safer in terms of customs clearance, quarantine and warehousing.” About 42 million Chinese bought foreign products via cross-border e-commerce platforms last year, spending about CNY1.2 trillion. That number is expected to reach 59 million shoppers this year, with a purchase value of CNY1.85 trillion. Sophie Lin, Hong Kong-based Analyst at rating agency Standard & Poor’s, said parallel trading could account for 10% to 20% of the infant milk formula bought by Chinese consumers, and the business would not disappear as long as the large price gap remained, the South China Morning Post adds.

China’s private businesses – from internet service provider Tencent to carmaker Geely – are to play a greater role in the country’s top technology programs and backbone infrastructure projects as Beijing seeks to give fresh momentum to its “Made in China 2025” initiative, according to a joint policy directive by 16 Chinese ministries. In addition to adding energy to the government’s effort to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry by tapping advanced technologies from artificial intelligence to robotics, the policy aims to “unleash private investment vitality”.

The assigning of a more prominent role to domestic private firms under the guidelines, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), comes as the “Made in China 2025” plan raises concerns in the United States and European Union that China is putting pressure on foreign businesses to surrender their technology to continue operating there. Under the guidelines, private domestic companies are to set up government-supported, state-level laboratories as well as trying to develop “global leading players” in technology.

Private businesses also are to be encouraged to take part in core projects, opening up private investment in areas such as industrial control systems, industrial software, computer chips, sensors and cloud systems customized to fit specific industries and intelligent platforms. The government is also to allow more private players to enter the telecommunications sector, supporting private funding of technological research for both civil and military uses. A goal for China will be growing an army of “little giants” with specialities in one product or segment, the directive said.

Despite a lack of details, the guidelines send a strong signal that Beijing is ready to let its private sector share more and more of the state research budget. Moreover, the government is set to provide China’s private companies with help previously reserved for state-owned enterprises, the South China Morning Post reports.

“The private sector is the major power and vanguard for Made in China,” the government said in a statement.