Establishing a Company Outside Beijing: Challenges and Benefits of 2nd and 3rd Tier Cities

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Event Description

The EU SME Centre and the German Chamber of Commerce – North China are delighted to invite you to an afternoon on China’s investment landscape.

China’s second and third-tier cities offer many benefits when compared with Beijing and Shanghai. The most obvious is monetary: there is a great potential market as labour, rent and essential services are cheaper.

“With the rising wages in the coastal region, as well as the rising importance of the domestic market in inland provinces, we believe that there will be major moves by companies to relocate their production bases into the inland provinces, with cheaper production costs and easier access to the inland markets,” a Credit Suisse team wrote in a report on China’s 12th five-year plan .

The main reasons behind moving or establishing new companies in a smaller Chinese city are:

1. low cost

2. high market potential

3. lack of competition

However, there are also significant challenges faced by European small and medium-sized companies wishing to establish themselves in China’s regional cities. For example, some of the cities are still affected by infrastructure issues and it is more difficult to find qualified and experienced local employees there, which make these cities less attractive for foreign or even local managers to relocate from the first tier cities.

If, after wisely considering the pros and cons, a foreign investor should decide to go into one of China’s smaller cities, it will be important to have local expertise alongside to help navigate the complex web of existing local interests and relationships.

The event consists of two parts:

Part 1: Presentation about the Investment Environment at 2nd and 3rd Tier Cities by EU SME Centre expert

Part 2: Presentation by Nils Seibert about Case Study on Information Collection and Government Negotiations

Our experts will share their knowledge and answer your specific questions on:

• Identifying the cities that offer the most promising locations for EU companies

• The different kind of business activities that might be conducted locally

• Identifying the current and future challenges

• Strategies, information collection and government negotiations

Tentative Agenda

14.00 – 14.30 Registration

14.30 – 15.10 Topic: The Investment Environment in 2nd and 3rd Tier Cities

15.10 – 16.00 Topic: Case Study on Information Collection and Government Negotiations

16.00 – 16.30 Q&A Session

16.30 – 17.00 Networking and one-to-one consultations

Speakers

Omar Puertas, EU SME Centre expert

Nils Seibert- Head Legal & Investment Department, German Industry & Commerce Greater China

Language: English

Fee: Free, but only open to EU SMEs and intermediaries such as chambers of commerce, embassies and trade promotion agencies.