Horizons Corporate Advisory has recently participated in Missione in Cina: Commercialisti e imprese verso i mercati esteri (Delegation in China: Chartered Accountants and Companies Facing Foreign Markets), a multicity event presented by Italy’s AICEC – the Italian Professional Association of Chartered Accountants. The roadshow event included agendas delivered in Italy a few months back and more recently in Hong Kong and Shanghai. 

Contributions to Missione in Cina from Horizons included the presentation, How to face China and Hong Kong: Operational reflections in the current regulatory framework), given in both Prato and Turin, Italy by Lucia Myriam Netti, Horizons Regional Partner for Europe, Russia, Belarus. In China, Horizons Italy further had the chance to participate in a Shanghai round-table discussion on Doing Business in China.

Horizons’ efforts in Missione in Cina focussed on shared knowledge related to businesses taking the proper approach to protecting and boosting overseas investments in the Chinese market, including best practices for understanding and leveraging China law to both prosper and safeguard interests. 

“At Horizons, we sometimes talk about businesses trying to ‘discern the obvious when it’s not obvious as all’ when it comes to China,” says Lucia Myriam Netti. “People have this impression of doing business in China as a byzantine experience. Of course, one should be careful when doing business in China, but we should also note that Chinese business law is set very clearly, and therefore knowledge of PRC law, particularly in accounting, is a key instrument for success.

“Cooperation between a foreign accountant — let’s say, an Italian accountant — and his or her equivalent in China, who may be a corporate or tax lawyer or a certified public accountant, is paramount at every step in moving things along, from set-up to realization to management and ongoing development. This is especially so with the 2020 changes in Chinese foreign investment law. 

“That said, for investors, one’s home-based accountant must view their Chinese counterpart as a true and transparent ally, not with stereotypical mistrust, as is sometimes the case in doing cross-border business with China. This is what genuine internationalization calls for. The attitude must be one of not ‘us’ and ‘them’, but only us.” 

For overseas investors, when you engage with China-side accounting from the very beginning and accept the vast importance of the role of the accountant, you’ll be doing yourself well. That’s why Horizons is eager to participate in knowledge seminars such as the one put on by AICEC, where we can help investors, in fact, “discern the obvious”, and understand how to position their projects to succeed.    

Horizons has been engaged in the China market for more than 30 years. In that time, the firm has developed the ‘know-how’, the proper resources and the right solutions to help clients successfully navigate cross-border deals and their related aspects. This effort has expanded with the formation of the China Collaborative Group, a multicountry association of business, legal and tax advisors. CCG employs a dedicated, culturally-aware approach that allows the advisors to work locally in achieving global results.

Horizons is proud to help support AICEC’s mission to inform, train and contribute to the exchange of knowledge and experience related to internationalization for the benefit of the Italian professionals and business industry as a whole. In particular, we support the development of Italian Chartered Accountants to benefit the internationalization of Small and medium-sized enterprises operating in China and around the world. 

If you would like more information about the corporate taxation in China or other related corporate matters, send us an email at talktous@horizons-advisory.com, and we’ll have a Horizons professional contact you.

Horizons Corporate Advisory helps clients solve complex problems, thrive and be inherently responsible in their business activities worldwide. The countries we operate in include Belarus, Belgium, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, Macau, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland (French and German-speaking cantons), Turkey, United Kingdom (England and Wales) and the United States of America.

Please visit our website at horizons-advisory.com