NZCTA Commentary: Burning bright in the year of the Tiger
The year of the tiger is believed to bring with it mythical heroic powers. The Tiger is said to be lucky vivid, engaging and brave, ready to engage in battle and accept a challenge. Nonetheless, Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, has struck a note of caution about the challenges ahead in the new year, with China facing complex issues in 2010, both at home and abroad. “People must keep a...
FEATURE: Ten Highlights of China's Commercial Sector 2009 - 2010
Each year Li & Fung Research Centre publish the authoritative and insightful "Ten Highlights" research report. 2009 was a testing year for China. Hit by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the country’s macroeconomic outlook has turned cloudier. We have witnessed more difficult times for China’s commercial enterprises unseen in past several...
LEGAL: How to start a business in China - WFOE
As a new year refresher course or for those of you unfamiliar with the process of setting up a company in China, we offer the following guide kindly provided by Dan Harris of www.ChinaLawBlog.com. This post focuses on the forming of a Wholly Foreign Owned Entity (WFOE) in China. I am starting...
SOURCING: Four simple steps for starting to do quality control
Renaud Anjoran of Sofeast, China-based quality control consultants, offers some practical advice for implementing and succeeding at quality control when dealing with Chinese suppliers. Some importers have been buying from China for many years, and yet they have never done quality control in a...
STRATEGY: What is the hardest part of doing business in China?
Andrew Hupert of China Solved ran a pair of surveys on Linkedin and has shared the results with us. One survey appeared on a set of Linkedin business groups with NO specific geographic orientation and asked, “What is the most difficult aspect of doing business?” Andrew broke...
MARKETING: Branding in China ~ The challenge of selling Starbucks coffee in a tea-drinking nation and other lessons
In 2009, Columbia Business School hosted a conference exploring branding in China and India. With a population of 1.3 billion, China presents an attractive market opportunity for many multinational companies, as well as some unique challenges in building and expanding a brand. Columbia Business...
NZCTA: We need you!
We need you! Or your China business questions to be more precise. NZCTA is a network of active and experience China business people and consultants, both in New Zealand and on the ground in China. Tap into this network by sending your Legal, Strategy, Marketing, Sourcing or...
Law school: Practical advice for protecting your NZ brand in China
In China, good brand protection is vital for business protection. If you use your brand in China without registering it as a trade mark somebody else might use your brand with relative impunity. Worse, they could register it and potentially prevent you continuing to use your own brand. They...
Tax toolkit: New Zealand-China tax update
The tax status of New Zealand companies investing offshore is about to be turned upside down following the recent changes to the CFC rules. The CFC rules are not those nasty things that impact on our environment but are the controlled foreign company rules. Under the previous rules New...
Catch 22: IP protection in China vs. boosting economic growth
Jordan Calinoff & Hayleigh Davies of the Shanghai Business Review explain why the Chinese government finds itself walking a tightrope between IP enforcement and boosting its domestic economy. BRAND BEIJING OLYMPICS: the must-have items of Summer 2008. From Shanghai hipsters to rural...
NZCTA Commentary: Shanghai Expo 2010 as a catalyst for innovative thinking
World Expos like the Olympic Games strive to outdo their predecessors in scale and opulence and just as Beijing set a new benchmark for the Olympics last year, so we’re quite sure Shanghai...
From the Edge: Hand on Till
From the Edge is the collected memories and experiences of an old China hand and will run in an irregular series of articles on www.China-Briefing.com over the next couple of months. By I.B....