BJ: Last Friday we kicked off the spring with the very first Swedish After Work of the year when we welcomed members and friends to our new office in central Liangmaqiao area. The new office is located in Jin Shang, a multi-discipline and multi-functional co-working space with event spaces, hotel, co-labs, eateries and much more in the same building.

We were happy to see more than 40+guests celebrate this happy occasion with us. Next Swedish After Work will take place on March 1 at Pudao when we, together with Volvo Group, celebrate that Volvo Group has joined us as a Dragon Partner. In doing so, Volvo Group joins Atlas Copco, Handelsbanken, Mannheimer Swartling, Syntronics and Volvo Cars. Dragon Partners are important contributors to SwedCham’s ability to serve its members, and by extension a great support for Swedish business life in China.

Next time you visit us you find us at this address:
Room 226, 2nd Floor, 20 Xinyuanli West, Chaoyang District, Beijing
北京市朝阳区新源里西20号2层226

We would like to inform you that our offices in Beijing and Shanghai will be closed during Chinese New Year Holiday, between February 4 to February 8. Normal operation will resume on Monday, February 11.

We thank you for your continuous support and we wish you and your family good health, success and happiness. Thank you for your understanding and happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐！

SwedCham China

The Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with 270 Swedish and Sweden-related member companies, officially recognized as foreign chamber by the PRC. Our mission is to advance our members’ business interests through Networking, Information and Advocacy.

To that end, our activities include events, seminars, closed-door dialogues, surveys, reports as well as top-level meetings. Furthermore, we aim to improve Sino-Swedish business ties and promote the Swedish brand through the Team Sweden collaboration with among others the Swedish Embassy and Consulate General, Business Sweden, etc.

In recent years, the Chamber has undergone a thorough modernization process to level up its offering, brand image and internal structure. The successful candidate will work hands on with the continued implementation of this process at a regional level.

The Role

To our Shanghai office, we are looking for an Area Manager to take responsibility for the Chamber’s activities and operational development – in line with the Chamber’s modernization efforts and in close collaboration with the General Manager.

The position includes relationship building, regional business development, member recruitment and retention, as well as administrative and managerial duties. The ideal candidate should also display strong leadership skills in implementing organizational change, and feel comfortable shifting between strategic-level thinking and hands-on tasks.

Examples of responsibilities:

• Manage the Shanghai office’s day to day operations, budget and financial result.
• Representing the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in meetings with members and partners.
• Regional recruiting and account managing responsibilities.
• Coordinate high quality events (open-door seminars, closed-door dialogues, training programs, after-work events, gala evenings, etc.) together with the rest of SwedCham’s team.
• Coordinate the coverage of Swedish, Chinese and international business trends.
• Team management responsibilities for 1-2 staff, including development and performance review.
• Preparing material for Chapter board meetings approximately 6 times per year.

Your Profile

To be successful in the position, we believe that you:

• Hold a Bachelor’s degree or above within the fields of marketing, communications, or other relevant fields.
• Have experience of multi-stakeholder partnerships, ideally including public, private, and non-profit actors.
• Are Swedish and/or have strong ties to Sweden with a passion for Swedish brands and innovation.
• Have experience from managing small teams, including recruitment and employee development.
• Have experience from organizing events, from small business seminars to large social dinners.
• Feel at ease with people at all levels and from all backgrounds. You are a natural networker.
• Have experience of working in or with China. Being currently based in China is meritorious.
• Speak and write impeccable business English. Swedish and Mandarin are highly meritorious.

Practical Details

The position is 100% of full-time, part time subject to discussion.

It is highly preferred if candidates already possess a working (Z) visa.

Possible costs for visa issuance/transfer to be supported by the Chamber.

Remuneration based on local standards and experience.

For questions regarding the position, feel free to contact Emma Lindgren, current holder, at emma@swedcham.cn

Apply by Februari 15, 2019 with letter and link to LinkedIn profile to martin@swedcham.cn

Start date at the latest March 11, 2019.

BJ: On November 30, the Civil Affairs organised an annual meeting for all 19 foreign Chambers of Commerce in Beijing. Ms. Huangru, the Deputy Director General of the administration office at the Civil Affairs, initiated the meeting and welcomed all the representatives. Director Kexiaoshan followed with an update about policies related to foreign Chambers in China, and section chief Song Zhongwei concluded the first part with a general summary of last year’s working reports from all the Chambers.

For the second part of the meeting, all the Chambers took turns to present this year’s main events and activities. SwedCham presented activities in relation to the 20 years’ celebration earlier this year, as well as examples on how some of our member companies have implemented the No Plastic Challenge.

Thanks to the Civil Affairs for organising the meeting; it was a great opportunity to learn about the different policy updates and to hear different successful stories from other Chambers.

On August 31 2018, the National People’s Congress Standing Committe officially passed the new Individual Income Tax (IIT) reform, which will be implemented in January 2019.

Earlier this week we had full house at Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai hosting an event dedicated to the topic of IIT, discussing how it will effect companies in China. The two draft rules of the IIT provided more details on the changes brought about by the new law which include the amendments on five-year rule, defining of China sourced income, requirement of annual reconciliation, elaboration on anti-avoidance rules and rules in relation to specific additional deductions etc.

The tax payers and employers should have a comprehensive understanding of the new regulations and get fully prepared to embrace the changes.

Click here to access upcoming SwedCham events!

China’s Singles’ Day just passed and broke records the first hour during midnight with an increase of $4 billion in sales from the previous year.

Singles’ Day, also referred as Double 11, is a shopping event day in China similar to Black Friday in the U.S., where many E-commerce companies have discounted prices on their products. One of them is the E-commerce giant Alibaba which is constantly breaking records by selling millions of goods. This year’s Singles’ Day Alibaba surpassed an amount of $31 billion, about $4 billion more in sales than last year, through their E-commerce site Taobao.

Singles’ Day and Black Friday are considered to be the biggest shopping event days of the year. According to thebalance.com, last year’s Black Friday had a total sales of $8 billion, while Singles’ Day had $31 billion in sales this year.

But what is it that really distinguishes these two shopping event days except the number in sales? While trends are widely different in China compared to the west, there’s a clear distinction between these two shopping festivals, Black Friday is aimed towards shopping in physical stores while Alibaba’s sales derives from its E-commerce business.

Consumption patterns also widely differ from Black Friday and Singles’ Day. China is known to be a country of materialism, where luxury items and expensive accessories symbolize a rich lifestyle and high status in society. This gives a rise to the high consumption rate of goods among the Chinese middle-class in the country as well as abroad. In Sweden people tend to spend more money on things like travelling and other experiences, not really having the same view of a prestigious image obtained through materialistic goods.

However in Sweden, we see very different trends. Our shopping festivals can’t be said to be placed on one particular day, instead we have periods which provide discounted goods. The biggest one starting shortly after Christmas and ending before the New Year. As the shopping trends in Sweden along with its population are widely different from China, the numbers in sales of Singles’ Day and other shopping festivals will likely not be experienced in Sweden. Even the biggest Swedish companies, for instance IKEA, had an annual revenue of about $40 billion in the fiscal year of 2017, which is just a little more than what Alibaba experienced on Singles’ Day only.

China’s Singles’ Day event is also getting traction in other countries, Russia and the U.S. are two examples already committed to the Chinese shopping event day in terms of spending. More countries are now acknowledging foreign shopping event days such as Singles’ Day and start adopting these as local shopping festivals.
Although in response to these shopping event days and festivals, several movements against these days dedicated to excessive consumption of goods have taken form. Among these movements is ‘White Monday’. White Monday was first established in 2017 with an origin in Sweden, hence having a large amount of Swedish speakers & supporters. To this day, the movement has support from many big organizations like WWF, SSNC and several companies. One of the criticial points made from these movements, is particularly the impact large consumption of products leaves on the environment.

While Sweden has a long way to go to reach the same E-commerce trend that is being experienced in China, how will shopping festivals evolve from here? According to an article publicized by Tom Popomaronis on Forbes.com, shopping trends will evolve to be completely different from our traditional ways of shopping. The article conveys ideas that drop-shipping, automatic replenishment and AI will play a large role in replacing physical shopping in stores. The article adds that augmented reality, which is a perceptual world that is generated by a computer, will also be a thing where consumers can try goods through immersive virtual experiences.

Written
by
André Bengtsson, intern at SwedCham in China