Catalonia deepens its roots in China

From http://www.viaempresa.cat/ca/notices/2013/12/catalunya-arrela-a-la-xina-3830.php (in Catalan)

The on-line Catalan business magazine, Via Empresa, has recently published an article by Joan Ramon Armadàs about the increasing commercial relationship between China and Catalonia.

According to the official statistics, until August 2013 Catalan exports had amounted 4,5 billion €, a fourth of the Spanish exports, growing by 7.3%. Catalan exports to China are still a small percentage, amounting 90 million €, but with a growth between January 2012 and August 2013 that has reached 19%.

Acció is the agency set up by the Catalan Government to improve the competitiveness of Catalan enterprises throughout the world. Gao Wei is the head of the Acció office in China and he is aware that the growth of the Chinese economy is the main reason for the companies to land in China. According to him, "the economic situation in China offers business opportunities to the Catalan companies, specially in projects related with the transfer of technology".

About whether it is better to be physically in China or if it is enough to have some good local contacts and suppliers, a question that probably nowadays many companies have had, Gao Wei offers his wisdom: "it is important to have contacts and suppliers, but it is highly recommendable to travel to China to visit the local companies before starting the business". He also acknowledges that China is a difficult market for the Catalan companies, due to factors such as the different commercial practices, the cultural differences and the administrative barriers applied by the Chinese government in order to protect the local products.

Another big question is in which part of China it is better to land. According to Ana Beatriz Hernández, a teacher at the Department of Business Management at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and author of the report "Análisis de la inversión empresarial catalana en China (Analysis of the Catalan business investments in China)", companies should not only consider to invest in the big cities. In them, competition is fierce and it is where the Chinese government is working harder to compensate it. In a recent interview in the Acció website Anella.cat, Ana Beatriz Hernández states that the main interest of the Chinese government now is to develop its inland regions through different kinds of incentives that some Catalan companies have already started to use. However, it is also frequent that the geographical location of the investment is related to the area of the chosen local partner.

Despite these advantages of the inland areas, the names of the main Chinese cities are still an important factor for the attraction of the foreign companies willing to establish in China. According to Gao Wei, Beijing is where the decisions about the big projects are made and it is where there is a higher density of universities and research centres, which means it is where the highest concentration of talent and prepared people. On the other hand, Shanghai has a great commercial activity because it is the place where the reform tests are being made, like the Pudong New Area (浦东新区) or the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone (上海外高桥保税区). Finally, he sees Hong Kong as the window of China that's open to the rest the world, both for its free trade and for the its important attraction of foreign investments.

From the opposite point of view, Catalonia also offers things to which the Chinese are attracted to, specially in terms of tourism, culture and sports. Gao Wei also states that the Catalan people are acknowledged by their entrepreneur and commercial spirit, as proven by the appointment of Barcelona as the capital of the Mobile World Congress, that has brought Chinese companies such as Huawei or Lenovo to open offices in Barcelona.