The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce and Startups.be have the pleasure to invite you to our conference on ‘Unicorn or Dragon: How to Tap into the Chinese Market for Growth?’ on Wednesday 25 April 2018 from 17:30-19:30 at BECENTRAL, Cantersteen 10, 1000 Brussels.

With a population over 1.3 billion and 1 billion cyber citizens, sharing 1/5 of world GDP, China is now the second largest economy in the world. It is definitely a booming market.

Global business leaders consider China as a key market in their global business strategies. Chinese business models, consumer behaviours, e-commerce, and social media have changed tremendously in the last 30 years.

It is essential for entrepreneurs to understand the way of doing business in China taking into account the important potential of the Chinese market. Expanding to China becomes a must but with challenges to lead ahead.

This event provides a unique opportunity for start-ups to learn how to avoid failures, overcome difficulties and succeed in China. It provides participants with deep insights about Chinese business models and ways to enter the Chinese Market.

CEOs, founders and managers from start-ups and growth companies. People who are interested in doing business with China.

Agenda:
17:00 Signup & Networking
17:20 Welcome by startups.be
17:30 Speech by Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce
17:40 Keynote Speech “Unicorn or Dragon: How to tap into the Chinese Market for Growth”
Bo Ji, Chief Representative & Assistant Dean of CKGSB Europe
18:40 Q&A Session
18:50 Networking

If you are interested in the event, please subscribe here before 23 April 2018. FCCC members free, non-members: €55.

From 9 – 13 July 2018, Startups.be and EYnovation organise a high-level startup mission to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, with a focus on fintech, IOT and health. It is a perfect opportunity to discover the fast- growing Shenzhen and Hong Kong ecosystems by attending Asia’s most important startup conference (RISE Conference) and meet all the important players in the local communities.

Bo Ji is an inspiring TEDx speaker, a Chinapreneur, and a game changer for global startups expanding into China

Bo is currently the Assistant Dean & Chief Representative for Europe at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), a top business school with more than 10,000 Chairman/CEO level alumni in China. Bo had an over-20-year successful business career in Global Business Development, Innovation, Strategy, Supply Chain Management, M&A, etc. He served as the senior executive at the headquarters of many fortune 500 companies such as Monsanto, Cargill, Pfizer, Wrigley, and Mars. He is also a well-sought conference speaker.

Combining his extensive business experiences and in-depth knowledge, Bo has been teaching EMBA/MBA at some of the world’s most prestigious business schools such as INSEAD, Esade, MIT, New York University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Technology University of Munich, Tsinghua University, CKGSB, Zhejiang University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Taiwan’s National Chengchi University etc. In addition, Bo also offers advice to Chairmen and CEOs. He is also a frequent speaker at renowned international conferences, forums, TV media and annual corporate meetings.

Bo created the first ever “China Start” program to systematically bring global startups to China. Bo is a strong advocate of startup China expansion. He is instrumental in developing “China Start” program to help European startups to expand to China. He frequently appears at tech conference all across Europe as keynote speaker.

About Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) aims to cultivate business leaders with a global vision, a humanistic spirit, a strong sense of social responsibility and an innovative mindset. Established in Beijing in November 2002 with generous support from the Li Ka Shing Foundation, CKGSB is China’s first faculty-governed, non-profit, independent business school.

Since its founding, CKGSB has developed into a prominent business school with more than 40 full-time professors, who have earned their PhDs or held tenured faculty positions at leading business schools such as Harvard, Wharton and Stanford. Their research has provided the basis for more than 400 case studies of both China-specific and global issues. CKGSB also stands apart for its unmatched alumni network. More than half of CKGSB’s 10,000+ alumni are at the CEO or Chairman level and, together, their companies’ revenues account for 1/5 of China’s GDP.

CKGSB strives to understand business in a better-rounded capacity, beyond the traditional boundaries of business schools. For instance, in 2005, CKGSB pioneered the integration of the humanities into its curricula to give students a long-term and holistic view of business and development. The school’s EMBA students—more than 80% of whom are above the Vice President level—are also required to complete six days of community work before receiving their degrees. In 2014, CKGSB was the first Chinese business school to develop a philanthropy program aimed at equipping the school’s alumni with expertise on setting up and managing foundations and engaging in philanthropy.

CKGSB is also Mainland China’s most globalized business school. Besides its three campuses in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the school has established offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. Moreover, it has formed strategic partnerships for joint programs and research with leading schools worldwide, such as Columbia Engineering in the US, IMD in Switzerland and FDC in Brazil.

The school offers the following innovative courses: MBA, Finance MBA, Executive MBA, Business Scholars Program (DBA); and Executive Education programs.

For more information, please visit http://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/

His Excellency Mr. Qu Xing, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Belgium

Mr. Li Jinqi, Director General of the China Foreign Trade Center

The Chinese Embassy organized an information session on the opportunities to participate in the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which will take place from 5 to 10 November 2018 in the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai. In May 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation that China will hold the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). The CIIE is hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and supported by the World Trade Organization, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

The information session took place on 16 March 2018 at Tangla Hotel, in Brussels. His Excellency Mr. Qu Xing, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Belgium, and Mr. Li Jinqi, Director General of the China Foreign Trade Center introduced the opportunities for companies to participate in the CIIE. There were amongst others also speeches by Mr Ari Epstein, CEO, Antwerp World Diamond Center, Mr Johan Verstraete, Vice-President Weaving Machines – Marketing, Sales & Service, Mrs He Liqin, Bank of China and Mrs Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC). The session was followed by a networking lunch hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Belgium. The information session was hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Belgium and supported by the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce.

For questions concerning the Fair, you can contact FIT Shanghai: shanghai@fitagency.be and also our Chamber: info@flanders-china.be.

Vice President Wang Qishan (left) and President Xi Jinping (right)

On March 17, Xi Jinping was elected to a second term as state President in a unanimous vote by the 2,970 delegates to the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC). For the first time Xi took an oath on the constitution in front of the NPC delegates.

Wang Qishan was elected Vice President with only one dissenting vote. Wang was Chairman of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) during Xi’s first term as Party General Secretary and State President as he led the fight against corruption. At the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th Congress in October last year Wang was not re-elected to the Central Committee and thus had to relinquish his seat on the uppermost level seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping was also reconfirmed as Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Li Zhanshu received a unanimous vote to become Chairman of the National People’s Congress.

Wang Yang, a Member of the Politburo Standing Committee, was elected Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at its closing session. Altogether 24 Vice Chairpersons and 300 Standing Committee members were also elected.

The NPC endorsed President Xi’s nomination of Li Keqiang to serve a second five-year term as Premier of the State Council, China’s central government. Xi’s top economic adviser Liu He was named a Vice Premier. The list of newly-appointed government ministers is available here. Wang Yi remains Minister of Foreign Affairs with the additional title of State Councilor; Liu Kun is Minister of Finance; Zhong Shan is reconfirmed as Minister of Commerce; and Yi Gang is appointed Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), replacing Zhou Xiaochuan, who had held the post for the past 15 years.

The NPC unveiled an ambitious plan to revamp the central government structure, with more than two dozen ministries and commissions affected. The number of ministerial-level government agencies will be reduced by eight, while seven vice-ministerial agencies will also be abolished. A new Ministry of Emergency Management, a Ministry of National Resources, and a Ministry of Veteran Affairs will be created. The most important new commission is the National Supervisory Commission under Director Yang Xiaodu. It reports directly to the NPC and combines the anti-corruption functions of the Ministry of Supervision and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Moreover, it has a higher rank than the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. It has jurisdiction not only over Communist Party members, but over all public servants. The banking and insurance regulatory commissions will be merged. A new National Market Supervision and Administration Bureau will take on the responsibilities of quality checks, food and drug safety, anti-monopoly investigations and pricing administration – areas that previously fell under various government bodies. A separate commission will handle international development cooperation. The last reshuffle of a similar scale took place in 1998 when several ministries were abolished.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will lose some of its powers with other agencies taking over some of its functions. The NDRC will lose responsibility for creating development zones to a new natural resources ministry, while its climate change unit will be transferred to the environment ministry. It will no longer approve agriculture investment projects and its antitrust team will come under the new market supervision administration. In addition, its oversight of “key national projects” will be transferred to the National Audit Office, and the new health commission will take over pricing of medicines and health care services. The Commission has been blamed for exacerbating overcapacity in industries ranging from steel to solar panels and of approving too many subway projects. The Ministry of Culture will be merged with the National Tourism Administration (NTA).

After the restructuring, China’s central government now has 26 Ministries and Commissions.

Following the closing session of the 16-day National People’s Congress session on March 20, Premier Li Keqiang – flanked by his four Vice Premiers – answered 15 questions of domestic and foreign journalists at a press conference.

Premier Li reconfirmed that China will open its economy more and more to the world, including specific sectors such as finance, care for the elderly and education. Import duties on cancer drugs will be cut to zero. Protection of intellectual property rights will be strengthened and the requirement of technology transfer in manufacturing joint ventures will be scrapped. He added that China needs to continue to make its market a fair one and give Chinese consumers greater choice. He also promised to streamline government procedures for businesses and cut the time needed to register a business in half. Local and state taxes needed to be merged. The Premier said China has always respected property rights and “contracts are not useless bits of paper”. The rights of home owners will be expanded.

He said that a trade war between China and the U.S. is not in either side’s interest, adding that the word ‘war’ was incompatible with trade. “We should act rationally, instead of being led by emotions.” China hopes to see balanced trade because “otherwise, it’s not sustainable”. He said China will open up domestic services, and U.S. firms can “grab the opportunity”. However, he called on the U.S. to relax restrictions on hi-tech exports, one of the causes of the bilateral trade deficit. Talking about avoiding financial risks, the Premier referred to the recent crackdown on tycoons, saying the economy faced some risk in the same way “that a big tree invites winds”, but he insisted there is enough capital in the banking system. The country has cut its budgeted fiscal deficit because revenues proved stronger than expected and the small deficit-to-GDP ratio means China won’t change its policy stance. The absolute amount of fiscal spending this year will still be larger than last year. The insurance and banking regulators had been merged to tackle loopholes in the system, he added.

China has the world’s largest social security system, but Premier Li acknowledged that some rural families are still reluctant to visit a doctor because of the high cost involved. He said the government wants to raise subsidies for basic health insurance, particularly for serious illnesses. He also said there had been problems paying pensions. The country now has 241 million people aged 60 or above, around 17.3% of the total population. Pension reform would continue.

Answering a question on the development of the internet, Premier Li said that the government’s Internet Plus scheme is an important economic driver and a major platform for the country’s sharing economy. The Internet Plus policy has been criticized in some quarters for creating excessive risk, but Li defended the policy by saying the government is working to link education, health and government services. He hoped that overseas listed internet firms would return to China.

In the latest reshuffle of Chinese government institutions, a new Immigration Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security will be set up to handle visas, repatriation of people found to be in the country illegally, and border control. It will also provide exit and entry services for Chinese nationals. The move comes as more foreigners are entering China, both legally and illegally, and more Chinese are emigrating, or acquire a second nationality, which is still illegal in China.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will take over the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, which handles employment of foreign experts. The government is also taking additional measures to attract more skilled foreigners to China for work – efforts that are often undermined by red tape, particularly the complicated visa application process.

“Along with the rise of China’s power, an increasing number of foreigners have come to work and live in this country, which means better immigration services are needed,” State Councillor Wang Yong told more than 2,900 lawmakers at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. There were more than 900,000 foreigners working in mainland China in 2016, according to official data, compared with only 10,000 in the 1980s. China meanwhile granted permanent residency to 1,576 foreigners in 2016 – a 163% jump from the previous year – under a “green card” scheme that began in 2004. The number of Chinese going to live in other countries is also on the rise, going from 4.1 million in 1990 to 9.3 million in 2013, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Wang Huiyao, Director of the Center for China and Globalization, a think tank in Beijing, said it was high time an immigration bureau was set up. “With so many departments involved and a complicated application process, moving to China can be a real headache for foreigners and the bureaucracy has also put off international talent from coming here,” Wang said, adding that a central agency could provide a better service and more welcoming atmosphere.

Dou Xiankang, President of Wuhan University and an NPC Deputy submitted a proposal to improve the pension system for top overseas talent in China.