The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce, in cooperation with DaWo Law Firm Shanghai and BenCham, organized a webinar focused on the ‘COVID-19 outbreak’.

Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director of the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce moderated the session. Opening of the webinar, she remarked that, excluding Hubei province, the overall situation in China is improving as the number of cases in other regions is dropping.

The first speaker of the webinar was Cécilia Vermeulen, the General Manager of Benelux Chamber of Commerce Shanghai. Cécilia reported on the Benelux Business Survey that was conducted among the Benelux community throughout China, and how their business has been impacted by COVID-19. The four main shared concerns affecting Benelux businesses during the COVID-19 epidemic are supply chain disruption; cash flow shortage; losing market share; and HR turnover.

Following the survey findings, Philippe Snel, Managing Director of DaWo Law Firm Shanghai, discussed governmental involvement in terms of support measures and incentives. Noticeable is the great desire of businesses and firms to get back to normal. Overall, Philippe estimated our current transition to get back to normal is approximately 40-50%.

Igal Chekry, Vice President of ASI Group specialized in logistics and freight forwarding, said that as of February 27 the situation was starting to normalize. The supply chain industry is mostly waiting for the factories to re-open again. Many have received the approval from local authorities to reopen again except for the factories in Hubei province.

For a focus on business resumption and economic outlook, Gerard van Damme, Country Manager China for ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems, explained the pro-active approach undertaken to deal with the crisis both within China as well internationally.

A Q&A session concluded the webinar.

The summary of the webinar can be obtained by sending an e-mail to: info@flanders-china.be