Dear CBI Members and Partners,
Kindly find the latest UK-China Lifestyle Newsletter covering the latest developments in brands, consumer goods and related sectors.
Our sincere thanks to Rebecca Li of DIT Shanghai for kindly sharing with the CBI's China team.
Dear CBI Members and Partners,
Kindly find opportunities for UK Food and Drink companies and products to get involved in various B2B and B2C activities in China through November 2021.
Please note that Mr. Stuart Dunn ([email protected]), Head of Food & Drink Trade, BCG Shanghai, will be available from 0930-1030 (UK) this Wed 06 October to answer any questions that you may have. Joining instructions for the call can be found below.
China Food & Drink Opportunities Nov 2021 - Call with SD
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Please refer to the two presentations below.
Our thanks to DIT Shanghai for kindly sharing the following information:
'We are very pleased to share with you the opportunities for UK companies and products to get involved in our November B2B & B2C activities.
This is product focussed with opportunities for both in market and new to market brands. The logistics have been detailed and this is the best route we are aware of though, of course we ultimately do not control this and there will be a limit to the amount of companies we can support as each package will need a unique person in Shanghai registered to receive the package.
This would be for larger companies mainly in the China market already though we are also interested in understanding companies' appetite and the opportunities available as we would like to create similar activities in the future.
Download China - GREAT Food & Drink B2B & B2C 2021 Opportunities
Download China – 2021 GREAT F&D Company Partnership Opportunities V1
Dear CBI Members and Partners,
Please review the following China Britain Beauty Festival e-letter and follow the links to register your brand at the Great Pavilion in Shanghai. Contact details and registration information can be found below.
Dear CBI Members and Partners,
Kindly find the latest UK-China Lifestyle Newsletter covering the latest developments in brands, consumer goods and related sectors.
Our sincere thanks to Rebecca Li of DIT Shanghai for kindly sharing with the CBI's China team.
Download China Lifestyle Newsletter - 8 March 2021
We are delighted to announce that the British Business Awards 2020 website (www.britishbusinessawards.cn) is now live and online applications open.
Established in 2008 and now in its twelfth year, the biennial British Business Awards (BBA) recognises and promotes excellence in innovation, enterprise, and endeavour, in the British and Chinese business communities. The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai is excited to be hosting BBA 2020 in Shanghai.
Over the past decade, BBA in China has grown to become a prestigious feature of the business calendar. BBA 2020 consists of nine categories which showcase a number of organisations and individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to trade and investment in China. These awards are:
· Innovation Award (Sponsored by bp)
· Sustainability Award (Sponsored by Houghton Street Consulting)
· Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Sponsored by The British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai)
· Chinese Investor in the UK Award
· British Exporter of the Year Award (Sponsored by CBBC)
· Leadership Award (Sponsored by The University of Manchester China Centre)
· Best Employer Award (Sponsored by Smith+Nephew)
· Best Services Award (Sponsored by KPMG China)
· British Company of the Year Award (Sponsored by SpiraxSarco)
Key Dates of BBA 2020
· Wednesday, 27 May: Official Website Launch & Online Applications
· Thursday, 11 June: Official Launch Event
· Friday, 31 July: Applications Close
· Thursday, 3 September: Finalists Announcement
· Thursday, 29 October: Awards Gala Dinner
For more details about each award and its criteria, please click here. To apply for the awards, please click here to register an account first or find your old account back.
BBA 2020 is supported by Department for International Trade (DIT), China-Britain Business Council (CBBC), The British Council, Confederation of British Industry (CBI), and British Chambers in Beijing, Guangdong and Southwest.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].
CBI member, Microsoft has announced that its first-generation AI framework, that was developed in China in Beijing’s Haidian district, will be made available to other companies for incorporation in smart devices.
Microsoft’s Avatar Framework has been under development by the global technology giant’s team in Beijing for some years now, and first attracted netizen’s attention after the company launched Xiaoice – an AI-driven chatting robot – in 2014.
Since her launch, Xiaoice has already been “talking” with more than 100 million users in China, has published two collections of poetry, composed and released dozens of songs, and held a painting exhibition.
Xiaoice has played a central role in Microsoft’s brand outreach in China in recent years, and her endeavours have helped the company accumulate more than 5 million followers on Weibo, as Microsoft continues to experiment with how AI can incorporate emotional intelligence characteristics, to allow robots, such as Xiaoice, to serve as a companion for people in old age care and upgrade other traditional sectors.
Li Di, Head of AI Development at Microsoft’s Search Technology Centre, said: “[Microsoft] wants to build a platform to empower others to improve their AI capabilities. […] The Avatar Framework Kit can empower other companies to quickly have multiple AI capabilities on their products, such as functioning AI voice-activated control [systems] for home appliances or smartphones, [providing] chatbots to accompany consumers shopping online, singing songs, drawing pictures or designing clothing patterns.”
Over the past year, Xiaoice has already been functioning as a voice-activated virtual assistant in 450 million units of third-party smart hardware, including smartphones and smart speakers, through the company’s partnership with fellow CBI member, Huawei and Xiaomi.
Microsoft announced last week, that Xiaoice will soon be present in the smartphones of major Chinese handset makers, Vivo and Oppo, on the WeChat platform of Tencent, and the news section of Beijing Bytedance Technology.
CBI member, EY has launched the third issue of its Belt & Road report, titled Navigator. The report focusses on the opportunities for foreign companies to partner with Chinese counterparts for ‘third-party market cooperation.’ Navigator homes in on the geo-political issues inhibiting the development of existing BRI projects, as well as the imbalance in sophistication between British, European and American firms and their Chinese counterparts.
The report features a case study examining the success of UK and Chinese businesses collaborating along the BRI. EY have identified infrastructure construction and financial cooperation between the UK and China as the two areas where the UK and China are highly complementary. According to EY, in the field of infrastructure construction, the UK has advantages in engineering design, law, consulting and management, while China is strong at construction efficiency, engineering technology innovation, cost control, supply chain management and cost performance. In financial services, Navigator identifies the UK’s tradition as an international financial centre and its long-standing trading history with many of the 3rd markets China wishes to engage along the BRI. Moreover, the UK was the first Western applicant to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the first to sign the Guiding Principles on Financing the Development of the Belt and Road.
Navigator also features updates on the progress of wider multilateral BRI initiatives, such as achieving stronger policy coordination between China and BRI partners, facilities connectivity, financial integration, unimpeded trade and people-to-people exchange.
The findings of the report corroborate what the CBI Beijing office has heard from members regarding the pros and cons of cooperating with Chinese partners in 3rd markets. That is, that niche opportunities exist for UK companies who are able to assist Chinese SOEs by underwriting projects along the BRI, as well as ensuring adequate legal frameworks are in place to reduce risk when foreign and Chinese companies cooperate in 3rd markets.
To read the report in full, please follow the link.
CBI member, Jaguar Land Rover has won a legal case to prevent Chinese car manufacturer, JiangLing Motor Corporation from selling a copycat vehicle, ending a three-year court battle.
On Friday, the Beijing Chaoyang District Court ruled that five major features of JiangLing Motor’s Land Wind X7 sport utility vehicle had been copied from Jaguar Land Rover’s Range Rover Evoque model. JiangLing motors was ordered to cease production, sales and marketing of the vehicle.
Jaguar Land Rover is also seeking RMB 1.5 million (£170,000) in costs and lost business, a sum which may rise in the future.
Keith Benjamin, Jaguar Land Rover global head of legal said: “This ruling is a clear sign of the law being implemented appropriately to protect consumers and uphold their rights so that they are not confused or misled, whilst protecting business investment in design and innovation. [Jaguar Land Rover] welcomes this decision of the Beijing court, which further strengthens our confidence in investing in China and in the fairness of intellectual property adjudication in the Chinese courts.”
The new Range Rover Evoque will be launched in China next month.
To find out more, please follow the link.
CBI member, Hays has published a report on Mainland China’s top talent trends going into 2019. According to the recruitment consultancy, China’s talent market in 2019 will be centred on industrial automation in reaction to the rising costs of manufacturing in the country.
Hays anticipates that a major shift in talent requirements will take place as companies seek to improve efficiencies.
According to Simon Lance, Hays Managing Director for China, “Mainland China is relentless in its endeavour to be the leading authority of quality innovation and new technology. This is driving employers to consider the technical expertise of a candidate to be of paramount importance, above other factors such as leadership qualities or salary expectations. […] Talents who are able to utilise new technologies that contribute to a company’s productivity will, therefore, enjoy heightened leverage in this candidate short market.”
Companies are increasingly seeking to recruit candidates which can assist them in selling within China, in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business settings; and through e-commerce channels. This focus on e-commerce has also prompted companies to prioritise recruiting talent in business development, sales & marketing, online marketing and big data.
Industry’s transition to prioritising e-commerce has wider ramifications for businesses whose role it is to ensure the supply chains of finished products or retailers. Rapid infrastructural improvements in China have made it easier for traders to find partners, not only from across their local region, but the whole of China, and as such, there is growing demand for talent to work within supply chain management to cater for an on-going e-commerce boom. According to Hays, there is a high volume of vacancies currently in need of filling.
All of China’s major e-commerce sites are making forays into Big Data, with Alibaba’s new CEO Daniel Zhang even going as far as to say that he wanted to re-brand the company as a ‘Big Data Company.’ Therefore, it is unsurprising that Hays has identified Big Data, the Internet of Things and Research & Development as key candidate markets.
These three markets are associated with China’s ongoing Digital Transformation as a part of the ‘Made in China: 2025’ initiative, which China hopes will future-proof its economy and see it become a global leader of innovation and technology. Algorithm Engineers, Machine Learning, NLP Engineers and Java Developers who also possess a background in online-to-offline business modelling are now seen as mission critical in order to obtain customer information and sales data.
China, in its quest to be a leader in disruptive innovation, views the US’s Silicon Valley and Cambridge University’s science parks as its model. It is with these two overseas sites in mind, that Hays moves to its final point – Local Candidates Preferred. Employers in China are welcoming with open arms the growing number of Chinese returnees, and in turn, less reliant on foreign talent.
Returnees who are fluent in English, having studied at leading institutions within science and engineering, whilst also being fluent in Mandarin and/or Cantonese, are particularly valuable, especially in China’s rapidly developing Greater Bay Area. In Hay’s recent Salary Guide Report when asked whether international candidates would be considered, employers responded with a 45% resounding ‘no’, while 46% favour returning Chinese, only a total of 10% of respondents stay open to considering foreign candidates.
Please find the full report here.
Dear CBI Members and partners,
Please find a recent analysis of the online opportunities and challenges facing the growth of Coffee in China.
With grateful thanks to Joe Cash, Policy Analyst, in the CBI's Beijing team.
The CBI helps create and sustain the conditions in which businesses in the United Kingdom can compete and prosper for the benefit of all.
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