By Gregory Sy and Currie Lee

3. Filing Requirements
Within fifteen days from executing the first franchise agreement, the franchisor must file with MOFCOM, specifically if the franchising activities take place within a single province, autonomous region or municipality under the central government (Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities), then with the MOFCOM of that province, autonomous region or municipality under the central government; or if franchising activities take place in more than one province, autonomous region or municipality, then at the national level MOFCOM.

Thereafter, the relevant MOFCOM will have ten days to properly file all completed filing, and publish them on its website.

However, it is necessary to note that the franchisor must, within 30 days of any change potentially impacting the filing, apply for an alteration of its filings. Read the rest of “Guide to franchising in China part 2″ or post a comment

While U.S. private equity investment is expected to remain flat in 2008, China should register 30%-plus growth for the next three years. With the current credit crunch roiling financial markets, private equity firms in the U.S. and Europe are finding it hard to tap the credit they need to fund their acquisitions. According to Dealogic, the value of buyouts dropped almost 90% in the U.S., from $216 billion in the second quarter of 2007 to only $22.1 billion in the final… 

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By Gregory Sy and Currie Lee

With China’s opening of its market and recent succession into the WTO, it has undergone rapid development in the past two decades. Due in part to such growth and in combination with its massive 1.3 billion population (330 million in its middle-class alone as compared to America’s total population of 300 million), it represents the world’s largest yet ‘untapped’ consumer market. For many franchisors seeking to market reliability associated with brand recognition and systematic organizational structures to the oftentimes chaotic and fragmented consumer sector (particularly the food and personal service industries), China will be both the largest yet most challenging opportunity in the 21st century. 

Fortunately for both consumers and those in the franchising industry, 2007 arguably brought about the largest liberalization of this sector since the “Opening Up” reforms of 1979.  Read the rest of “Guide to franchising in China Part 1″ or post a comment

By Steven Chow

(6) dispute settlement
a. Lawsuit or arbitration
The question for dispute settlement is lawsuit or arbitration. When I just graduated from law school and joined a big import & export company, I was asked by the general manager to review their sales contract. The first thing I noticed on the contract was that the dispute settlement clause said that both parties can choose litigation and arbitration as dispute resolution methods.

According to article 5 of Arbitration Law of People’s Republic of China, Whereas the parties concerned have reached an agreement for arbitration, the people’s court shall not accept the suit brought to the court by any one single party involved, except in case where the agreement for arbitration is invalid. Read the rest of “How to negotiate a purchase contract with Chinese supplier properly? Part 3″ or post a comment

Under the current tax system in China, there are 26 types of taxes, which, according to their nature and function, can be divided into the following 8 categories:

• Category of turnover taxes. It includes three kinds of taxes, namely, Value-Added Tax, Consumption Tax and Business Tax. The levy of these taxes are normally based on the volume of turnover or sales of the…

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