On 23 April 2024, the EU SME Centre, in partnership with the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce (CICC) and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), organised a breakfast roundtable for European SMEs on the Chinese updated regulatory environment and its impact on SMEs’ activities. The event took place at Bella Vita Bistro and saw the participation of nearly 30 stakeholders, with SMEs and business support organisations from Italy, France, Sweden, and Poland.
Since the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions in early 2023, the Chinese government has released several documents to promote foreign investment in the country. These include, for instance, the State Council’s “Opinions on Further Optimizing the Business Environment for Foreign Investment and Increasing the Attraction of Foreign Investment”, the State Council’s “Action Plan to Solidly Promote High-level Opening-up and Vigorously Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment”, and the Cyberspace Administration of China’s “Regulations on Promoting and Regulating the Cross-border Data Flow”.
Although not specifically directed at SMEs, these documents target a few areas that are often of concern for SMEs, such as access to financing, cross-border movement of capital and data, policy support and subsidies, fair competition and IP protection.
Alessio Petino, EU SME Centre Business Advisor, presented the most recent updates to help SMEs navigate the changing regulatory environment guiding their operations in China. After the presentation, EU SME Centre Team Leader Liam Jia led an open discussion with all participants, touching upon business sentiment, opportunities and challenges for SMEs in the Chinese market.
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