Chamber Representatives Speak at Seminar on Local Business Environment and Social Security Policy Changes

2018-10-22 | Shanghai

Chamber Representatives Speak at Seminar on Local Business Environment and Social Security Policy Changes

On 22nd October, European Chamber representatives participated in a seminar organised by the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Technology Commission about the local business environment and the impact of changes in social security policy on foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Mr. Ge Dongbo, Director of the Shanghai Small and Medium Size (SME) Development Service Center subordinate to the Commission, chaired the meeting.

Ms. Helei Fu, Director of Government Affairs of the European Chamber’s Shanghai Chapter, shared key findings from the European Business in ChinaBusiness Confidence Survey (BCS) 2018 and European companies’ top concerns about operating in Shanghai. The concerns include high living costs, high corporate and individual income taxes and visa restrictions on interns and senior professionals. Ms. Yanping Zhou, representative of the European Chamber's Energy Working Group, shared the challenges that local SMEs are currently facing, such as financial burdens resulting from high social security payments and the costs of intellectual property rights disputes between employer and employee. Compared with other leading regional cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore, the above issues place Shanghai at a disadvantaged position when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent and international investment.

At the end of the meeting, Ms. Fu presented the BCS 2018 and the Position Paper 2018/2019 to Mr. Ge.