Following the Voka mission to China earlier this month, the City of Ghent, Voka and IMEC are organizing this business and networking event during which three speakers will share their vision on doing business and growing in China.
In the past 30 years, China has become a global powerhouse and a major market for foreign companies. At the same time China is changing from ´Made in China´ to ´Designed in China´, focusing on innovation, upgrading of the existing economic sectors and high-tech. This means that the business landscape has changed dramatically. With a middle class of 300 million people, 800 million online and most patent applications now coming for China, foreign companies need to understand what this means for them, and what opportunities this creates.

Sven Agten has been living and working in China since 2004. He speaks Chinese fluently and has extensive business experiences in China as he set-up joint-ventures, managed several foreign companies and has a large network among Chinese companies and entrepreneurs. Besides being a contributor in newspapers and magazines, he is also the author of ´Hoe maak ik het in China (Lannoo, 2017)´ and ´So schafft man China´ (Springer, 2018) which describes the economic and social trends, and business opportunities and challenges of the new China. He is also mentor at China Accelerator, China´s biggest start-up accelerator, and top investor globally.

Peter Tanghe has worked in the high tech industry in China for 10 years as Managing Director for Accenture. He was responsible for transformation programs at private Chinese tech enterprises Huawei and Lenovo, and for the development of the go to market alliance between Huawei and Accenture. He has lived in Beijing and Shenzhen and has developed a broad local network. He is now working with tech scale-ups to develop partnerships for business development and product development in China, and splits his time between Ghent and Shenzhen. In his presentation, Peter will talk about tech innovation and partnering.

Join us on May 8th in Ghent!

This event is supported by Flanders Investment & Trade and the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce.

Agenda
• 13:30 – Registration
• 14:00 – Welcome
• 14:15 – Presentation by Sven Agten – Chinese innovation landscape – how to do and grow your business in China
• 15:15 – Testimonial by Peter Tanghe – Smart devices & local partnerships
• 15:45 – Testimonial by start-up/scale-up active in China (how they did it – challenges/barriers) – tbc
• 16:15 – Q&A
• 16:30 – Reception
• 17:30 – End

Location: Ghent (exact location to be confirmed soon)

Registration: via the IMEC website

The China knowledge partner of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, has an upcoming exciting opportunity – China CEO program happening this May 12-17th in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

China CEO is dedicated to support globally minded business leaders like yourself to gain China insights and complete their world perspectives, create a trusted leadership platform for peer learning and relationship building opportunities with their counterparts from China resulting partnerships and investment. This is a platform with a long term commitment to support aspiring business leaders’ success with China and globally. Please find the program details below and attached.

Since the program’s launch, accomplished business leaders from all over the world have committed to join the program this May (12-17th) in China including members of YPO. If this is of an interest, please contact its Program Manager: jenniferwang@ckgsb.edu.cn.

Date: 12-17th May 2019
Location: Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou & Shenzhen
Key activities:
• 5 CEO peer learning and relationship building opportunities with successful Chinese entrepreneurs/leaders
• 6 Company visits of Chinese Leading/exponentially growing businesses (including: Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba)
• 7 China’s key insights taught by world-class CKGSB professors

On 19 March, the China Platform of Ghent University and the Chinese Student and Scholar Association of Ghent University (ChiSAG) will jointly organize a China Networking Event in Het Pand from 4:00 until 8:00 pm. Apart from our students, staff and professors, also external members from the public authorities, business world and media will be invited.

The aim of this event is to put the spotlight on our China cooperation of the most recent years in a more informal way and we would like to offer the opportunity to the members of the Strategic Partnership China (Province of East Flanders, City of Ghent, FCCC and North Sea Port) to give a survey of the developments in their cooperation with China.

At the same time, we want to create a unique opportunity for the staff and professors of Ghent University, who do not yet have a cooperation with China, to get to know this country in all her aspects.

China remains a hot topic in our media and consequently, we think it would be an ideal moment to put China in the spotlight in our own open-minded manner with the motto of Ghent University “Dare to Think” in the back of our mind.
Mr. Stefan Blommaert will come to present his new book “De Eeuw van Xi”.

PROGRAMME:
16:00 Welcome remark by Prof. Luc Taerwe, Director China Platform
16:05 Speech by the chairman of the Board of ChiSAG, Ms. Zhang Mengjin
16:15 China-Belgium cooperation in the field of education and research by Mr. ZHENG Baoguo, Education Counsellor, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to the Kingdom of Belgium
16:25 Presentation about the China cooperation by the China Platform, Prof. Luc Taerwe
16:35 Presentation about the China cooperation by the Province of East Flanders, Mrs. Nausikäa Lagrou
16:40 Presentation about the China cooperation by the City of Ghent, Mrs. Tineke Cartreul
16:45 Presentation by the North Sea Port, name of representative (TBC)
16:50 Presentation by Mrs. Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce
17:00 Book presentation by Mr. Stefan Blommaert “De Eeuw van Xi”
The speakers will be announced by Mrs. Inge Mangelschots, coordinator of the China Platform.
17:30 – 18:00 Q&A with a panel of China-experts
18:00 – 20:00 Networking reception

Please register through the following link: https://eventmanager.ugent.be/ChinaNetworkingEvent

Address: 2nd Floor, Conference Room “August Vermeylen”, Convention Center Het Pand, Onderbergen 1, 9000 Ghent – https://www.ugent.be/het-pand/en/contact

Opportunities in China for your cleantech company? Discover them during our sector event on February 5. Among others, Altreonic and Jaga’s experience in China will inspire you, while Flanders Investment & Trade offers you insights in the Chinese economy and the current situation.

During the event you can individually evaluate your company’s activity compared to the potential of the Chinese market in regions closely paired with Flemish provinces: Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hebei and Shaanxi.
Through the I²PCC project, officially launched at this event, we put this network at the service of Flemish cleantech companies. Your company will be able to establish unique contacts in diverse Chinese regions and niche markets.

The evening will conclude with snacks and drinks during a networking moment with the organizers and participants.

Program:


15h30 – Registration

16h00 – Welcome by Ludwig Caluwé, Vice Governor Province of Antwerp and Chairman POM Antwerp

16h05 – Introduction I²PCC by Alice Cooman, Province of Antwerp

16h15 – Company testimonials:
• Altreonic, Eric Verhulst, CEO/CTO
• Jaga, Nico Vanherle, CEO Jaga China
• EMTI, Ching Yu Chang, Operations Manager

17h00 – “Doing business in China” by Michèle Surinx, Flanders Investment & Trade

17h30 – Conclusion by Bruno Reyntjens, Cleantech Flanders

17h35 – Possibility of individual company pitch (*) and networking

(*) The company pitch is a short oral presentation of the expected company activities in China to the project partners of I²PCC, not a PPT-presentation. Based on the pitch, the partners can evaluate in which Chinese region there might be opportunities. During the working visit of I²PCC to the regions, the company activities can already be presented to the Chinese partners. Prior to the event, you will receive specific guidelines for the pitch.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is mandatory before 31 January 2019 via this link

I²PCC is a common project of the provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, East-Flanders and Flemish-Brabant, supported by Cleantech Flanders and Flanders Investment & Trade. The European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD) is financially supporting the project.

On 23 July 2018, it was announced in the State Council executive meeting that the super deduction rate for R&D expenses will be raised from the current 50% to 75% for all types of companies. It was previously only available to medium and small sized technology companies. Earlier this year, more incentives have been implemented and are available to enterprises in China. For example, the reduced 15% enterprise income tax rate granted to qualified technologically advanced service enterprises in selected cities was rolled out nationwide. In addition, high and new technology enterprises (HNTEs) may now carry qualified losses forward for ten years instead of the normal five years. Companies operating in China will have more flexibility to arrange their legal and business structure to enjoy various types of tax incentives, on the basis that compliance requirements are properly satisfied. We’ll discuss:

• Updates on R&D super deduction.
• Updates on tax incentives to high and new technology enterprises.
• Updates on tax incentives to technologically advanced service enterprises.
• Compliance requirements and actions to be taken for the entitlement of the incentives.

Learn about the changes and implications that these new rules have brought that may affect your tax planning, which ultimately may affect your group effective tax rate.

Register here