Dear Working Group member,
The European Chamber is pleased to invite you to the next Finance and Taxation (F&T) Working Group meeting and Chair Election. It will be held on Friday, 16 March, 9:30 – 11:30 at the European Chamber offices in Beijing, Shanghai and South China via video conference.
In this meeting, Lin Fang, Corporate Tax Partner of PwC China, will give a presentation on "China Foreign Direct-investment Policy Updates for European Companies". He will share the latest insights on the following hot issues:
1. Development situation of foreign invested companies in China
2. Important measures to attract more foreign investment and implementation situation in practice - including Circular 88: withholding tax deferral treatment for foreign direct re-investment
3. Practice and development of Negative List System for foreign investment.
Additionally, we will have a discussion on the F&T Position Paper (PP) 2018/2019. The next WG meeting is aimed at targeting the Key Recommendations (KRs) of this year’s PCR Position Paper (PP). We encourage our members to send any comment about the current paper, their correspondent concerns and potential new content. We recommend to send your input for the PP – F&T WG to Mr. Antonio Salvador at asalvador@europeanchamber.com.cn by Friday, 9 March COB at the latest.
The 2018 - 2019 Chair elections will be held at the next Working Group meeting. The Chairperson and Vice Chairpersons play a crucial role in driving the Working Group, which includes a leadership role in the drafting of the Position Paper, communicating key messages to Chinese and European government authorities and steering Working Group meetings. The desired characteristics of a Chair and Vice Chairs are a senior industry representative with relevant industry expertise and government contacts who has the time and willingness to support the Working Group. Previous participation in the Working Group is essential. The maximum duration of Chairperson or Vice Chairperson of a Group is three consecutive years. Candidates are only eligible for Chair or Vice Chair positions if he/she is physically based in China. Only Corporate members are eligible for Chair and Vice Chair positions.
The F&T Working Group is going to elect one national Chairperson and five Vice-Chairpersons, i.e.:
- one Working Group Chair based in Beijing, Shanghai or South China to serve as the national Chair;
- one Vice Chair based in the same chapter where the Chair will be elected;
- four Vice-Chairs based in the other two chapters, two Vice-Chairs in each.
Should you be interested in putting your name forward for election, please, firstly, read the attached “Starter Kit for Chairs”.
To apply, please send a short biography and motivation letter, stating whether you intend to run for Chairperson or Vice Chairperson, to asalvador@europeanchamber.com.cn at the latest by Friday, 9 March COB. Please kindly note that all relevant documents will be circulated to members in advance for review and consideration.
In accordance with European Chamber internal guidelines, the Business Manager will send another email to the Working Group at least 3 days prior to the election with the bios and motivation letters of all candidates attached. Voting for the election must be conducted in person at the Group meeting (one vote per company) after each candidate has been given an opportunity to give a short speech on why they would like to run for election. The duration of the term for both Chairs and Vice Chairs is one year. All elected Chairpersons must sign the attached Code of Conduct following election.
Tentative agenda:
9:30 – 10:00 Presentation on "China Foreign Direct-investment Policy Updates for European Companies" by Lin Fang, Corporate Tax Partner of PwC China
10:00 – 10:20 Q&A session
10:20 – 10:40 Chair and Vice Chairs elections
10:40 – 11:30 Discussion on the 2018/2019 Finance and Taxation Position Paper
As usual, we welcome your suggestions for possible agenda topics and speakers for this and future meetings.
We encourage as many of our members as possible to attend to have their say in the leadership and representation of the Working Group in the year ahead.
