UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

The war on Ebola

Fly Title: 

Foreign entrepreneurs in China

Rubric: 

It is hard for small businesses to break into the Chinese market

Location: 

SHANGHAI

Main image: 

20141018_WBD001_0.jpg

ENTREPRENEURS do more with less, proclaimed Fiona Woolf this week on a visit to Shanghai. Lady Woolf, the current Lord Mayor of the City of London, was speaking at an academic conference devoted to helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) flourish in China. These businesses face all of the same obstacles as big firms trying to enter China but have far fewer resources.
Intellectual-property rights are hard and costly to defend. The tangle of red tape involved in tax, compliance, customs clearance, business registration and so on can overwhelm small firms. Alexandra Voss of the German Chamber of Commerce points out that local firms often work overtime and on weekends during negotiations—and that foreign …

Source: Assets