For smaller Asian countries it is no surprise that China has emerged in the last decade as an essential trading partner, Sri Lanka is no exception: becoming it’s largest foreign finance partner in 2010, overtaking India and Japan, and as its third largest trading partner (bilateral trade was $3.62 billion in 2013). For China, Sri Lanka is a crucial gateway port providing it with a foothold near sea lanes in the Indian Ocean and entry into what India considers its sphere ...

A snapshot
 
Aptly known as the Phoenix city, Yinchuan is a city that is gradually rising into economic prominence. Located in the North West of China in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a third of Niangxia’s population is Muslim, compared to the national average of 1.8% in 2010. In recent years, Ningxia has been the centre of a government campaign to promote Arab investment there, resulting in promising investments and high tech development on top ...

A special report by China Dialogue on China's overseas investments, including articles on Africa, South America and Asia. Please click here to download the full report
 

 
 
Chinese companies stuck in image crisis overseas
How NGOs can help Chinese firms do better overseas ...

Once the most prosperous nation on earth, the recent report from the International Monetary Fund suggests that we are witnessing a return to this status quo, with China’s purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted GDP estimated for the year at $17.6 trillion, compared to $17.4 trillion from the US.
 
Economists have been forecasting for some time that China will become the world’s biggest economy on a GDP basis by mid century. The new PPP ...

The China edition of Deloitte's Global Mobile Consumer survey provides unique insights into how Chinese consumers in different demographics interact with mobile devices. We asked Chinese consumers broad yet specific set of questions such as how likely they are to subscribe to 4G if available in their areas, what feature they would use more if the carrier network is 3 - 5 times faster, how frequent they change their mobile phones, how many apps they download per month, and how mobile ...

Much has been reported on the plight of  workers migrating in droves to make a better living in the cities, but little attention has been given to the wives they leave behind. According to the All China Womens’ Federation, there are up to 50 million of these ‘left behind women’ in rural China.The impact of this rural exodus reaches every corner of these women’s lives, from their daily workload to their role in the family ...

Now entering its second year, China`s anti-corruption drive is truly making progress and raising a few eyebrows internationally in both its depth and continued commitment to removing both the culture and perception of corruption in the country.
 
According to the Transparency International 2013 Global Corruption Perception Index (CPI), China is currently ranked 80 out of 177 countries, below South Africa and Brazil. Furthermore, out of the 28 economic ...

The first China edition of the 2014 Deloitte "State of the Media Democracy" Survey provides unique insights into how Chinese consumers in different demographics interact with media, including TV, newspaper, social network, gaming, advertising, and digital devices. This survey is part of the Deloitte research project conducted across the globe in 2014, covering Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Spain, and the United States. In China, data was gathered from 2,000 Chinese ...

With the closing of APEC earlier this month, its staging in Beijing has provide the organization with some much needed limelight. The aspirations expressed and announcements made were by no means small: A USD 40 billion fund for infrastructure development, blueprint for the pursuit of a Free Trade Area for the region (FTAAP), US-China agreement of the reduction of Carbon emissions, Russian-Chinese agreement to use national currencies for trade settlements, as well as many other bi-lateral ...

A snapshot of education and related developments that occurred in China in the first half of 2014, prepared by Education New Zealand. 
 

 
China’s Ministry of Education released its full year figures on the number of students who travelled abroad in 2013. The figures show a record number of students – 413,900 – studied overseas.While the number of students heading overseas reached an all-time ...

September the 19th marked a milestone in China’s Internet history, the day the Hangzhou based e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), raised more than $25 billion in the largest IPO in history. Founder, Jack Ma, became China’s richest individual with an estimated net worth of $21.8 billion and the 17 other partners who invested in the company 15 years ago have made significant gains. As China’s internet economy grows we can expect more Ma`s to grab our ...

Its tough to keep up with geo-political posturing in the modern world; however it’s clear that Asia is the new epicenter of Great power alliances. Recent months have seen: India and Japan draw closer politically, China court India with promises of much needed infrastructure investment, greater Russian Chinese economic cooperation. It is Russia however that is on the precipice of uncertaintanty of whether it is really an Asian power and whether it wishes to once again seek a strategic ...

Sina Corporation is an online media company targeting the global Chinese community. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Shanghai, it is publicly traded in the US on NASDAQ where it IPO`d in 2000. It operates some of the most popular web portals and social media sites in China which feature targeted content. Users browse most content for free, and the company monetizes its readership by selling advertisements similar to traditional media formats. Historically, the company’s web portals ...

ALS awareness has recently been brought to people`s attention with the ice bucket challenge, globally raising an unprecedented 75 million USD for research into the disease. A specialized Chinese research and clinical application team at the Neurorestoratology center at Jingdong Zhongmei Hospital, headed by Professor Hongyun Huang, has been pioneering controversial treatments of central neural system diseases for the last decade: carrying out cell-based neuro-restorative therapies for spinal ...

It`s simply a question of when the renminbi (RMB) will become a global currency rather than if. The Internationalization of the RMB is an inevitable progression for an international economic power such as China. Its currency, which is still carefully managed by the government, has a market share well behind the US dollar and the euro and currently barely traded on foreign exchange markets. But volumes are climbing steadily and all the signs point towards the RMB gaining greater stature as a ...

The China Greentech Initiative (CGTI) has now released its 2014 report.  Greener, Smarter, More Productive, the fifth in a series that was first launched at the World Economic Forum in 2009.
       
Increased awareness in China of the need to tackle pollution and improve the quality of life in Chinese cities is driving some significant changes in policy. The Report contends that to maintain a national GDP growth target of 7.5% ...

Irrespective of where you are in the world and who you are about to do business with, due diligence is essential to protect yourself. In China things can be a little more difficult due to language issues and access to information but not impossible. Here is our checklist of things to do based on 20 years of doing business here.

Ask for a copy of the company’s business license, this provides the most basic of information relating to the company:  ...

Having experienced rapid expansion and growth over the last decade the industry as a whole is still considered to be in its infancy even with a compound annual growth rate of 28-30% for the 2009-2013 period. FDI has played a major role in the development of the industry accounting for about half of the companies currently operating in the mainland. The market is mainly focused on two segments: auto and commercial property insurance however health insurance is becoming significantly more ...