Foreign Business in China – Today and Tomorrow

In our seventh and last conversation of this series, stars Switzerland Alumni Chapter President and stars Foundation Board Member Markus HERRMANN, Co-Founder and Managing Director at China Macro Group (CMG), will be talking to Joerg WUTTKE, President, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC); Member, stars International Board, Beijing.

The year 2022 presents numerous challenges to foreign business in China: among them, a generally sluggish economy, Covid-induced disruptions of production and supply chains, further politicization of the business environment especially amid China’s role in the Ukraine war, further grown concerns about potential escalations in the Taiwan Strait as well as a rising number of European expats leaving the country. Almost four in five European companies – as surveyed by the EUCCC’s Business Confidence Survey in late spring 2022 – found China had lost attractiveness for investments; at the same time, eight times as many firms are reported to have plans for more onshoring than those planning to offshore. So, how is the business environment perceived by European business? Do businesses indeed rather strengthen their local presence instead of leaving? And how do they balance mitigation for short-term political and economic volatilities with longer-term considerations for domestic and global competitiveness?

Kindly note: All webinars of this series are held under Chatham House Rules and will not be recorded.

COVID-19 has caused the cancellation of all stars symposia in 2020 and 2021 including those two foreseen in Shenzhen where we wanted to continue the annual stars China symposia previously held in Chengdu and Chongqing since 2011. Realizing that 2022 will be another year without reasonable possibilities for physical interactions with friends and experts in China, we have prepared a China-dedicated webinar series with seven webinars taking place between May and September 2022. We are happy to cooperate with SwissCham Beijing and Shanghai, the British Chamber (BritCham China), the French Chamber (CCI France Chine), the Italian Chamber (CICC) and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) as well as with Caixin Global as media partner and the China Macro Group as knowledge partner.

The events will be held in a hybrid fashion, so in addition to the online webinars and the Covid situation permitting, there are also physical events at the European Business Centre in Beijing, allowing to deepen the discussion directly after the webinar. The physical events are jointly hosted by the stars alumni chapter Beijing, Caixin Global and SwissCham Beijing. Onsite spots can be booked through the Chamber partners SwissCham Beijing and Shanghai, the British, French, Italian and EUCCC Chamber.

Information

Date
Organizer	stars – for Leaders of the Next Generation
Event language	English
Cost of participating	free of charge
Speakers	Joerg WUTTKE is three-term President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) as well as Chief Representative of BASF China, based in Beijing. He also serves as Chairman of the China Task Force of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD. Since joining BASF in 1997, Joerg has been responsible for guiding the company’s investment strategies in China, negotiating large projects and conducting BASF’s government relations in China. Before joining BASF, Joerg worked 11 years with ABB. Joerg is also a Member of the stars International Board.