China: Open for Business.
CHINA UPDATE - China officially reopens borders on Jan 8th.
The official reopening of China borders to foreigners comes not long after the Australian and New Zealand governments resumed trade talks, following 2-3 years of closed borders, conflict rhetoric and tension.
Whether you are in the West, wanting to engage in China commerce, or in China and wanting to engage the West, now is the time to re-start preparation to do business.
Earlier in 2022 a mass exodus of Western expatriates resulted in Western trade support within China being decimated. Unable to get visa's renewed during Covid, has meant that large numbers of industry experts left China to find roles in the West. This provides RCN ASIA with a rich and high quality network of local independent consultants to tap for market entry intelligence. The timing has never been better. During this same period, an as yet unspecified number of western businesses also departed the China market. Largely due to Covid regulations and other extremely difficult market conditions, and not because of lost opportunity.
Understanding what 'reopen' means, could provide a unique opportunity for smaller to medium ventures to disrupt trans-national supply chains that are typically locked away for decades. That advantage won't last long.
CHINA: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
China opening the borders to resume foreign trade.
While market conditions will not quite be 'business as usual', there is now a stable environment for businesses that previously considered China market entry. The call to action is to now act on initiating a research phase, prior to making medium to long term plans.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
IN THE MOOD FOR CHINA TRADE
New Zealand and Australian government trade representatives and their China counterparts have made it clear that long term trade is being supported at the government level. Government support is crucial, because the last thing businesses need is more risk.
Changes being put in place fro January 8th, 2023 make it possible for Western businesses to safely, securely and stably to re-engage China,
Although some very positive activities have occurred, the change that really mattered for every business, is the simple ability to visit China and get across the border to do trade.
NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY
Things are never straightforward with China.
Language and cultural differences, policy and law nuances, and essentially what might be considered a complete 'reset' of Western business activity in China will leave some people scratching their heads,
"Should we do this or not?"
The short answer is: RESEARCH. Consult with us to prove the business case, identify the risk Vs. reward factors and mitigate the risk to maximise the scale of profit.
Problems create opportunities. What are they?
Some conservative larger players left the China market due to long term Covid restrictions and difficulties for expatriate workers. This has left gaps in the market for brands prepared to step into wooing their channels and taking on the risk for rewards. Brands that can be agile, while behaving rationally through research to mitigate the risk, can take advantage of the short term disorganisation of competition in some categories. It is certain that trans national corporations won't be agile in decision making, and entering a recessionary market, may be risk averse. That's a rare opportunity to introduce a conservative and realistic, well structured market entry, In some cases, that market research may be best placed with trialing a pilot program with local Chinese consumers, in a local market, This works very well for a medium to long term approach, for those not quite ready, who want to test and measure at low cost.
The first market mover advantage won't last long.
MANAGEMENT ADVISORY
Among the RCN ASIA audience is a network of China experts and advisors that we can tap into, to project manage risk mitigation for market re-entry, or first time entry. RCN has an excellent track record training executives and supporting corporations worldwide. Using Agile-SCRUM, Lean and best practice project management methodologies and software, we provide a full spectrum, end-to-end project managed service support, from Management Advisory, through to in-market support.
EXPERIENCED and SUCCESSFUL.
REACH OUT NOW
Use the LIVE CHAT at: https://www.rcn.asia
Or contact: Glyn MacLean by email: glyn@rcn.asia
PREPARATION IS NINE TENTHS OF SUCCESS.
Glyn MacLean
FOUNDER | RCN Asia
