Foreign Investment Commercial Enterprise

As part of its World Trade Organization accession process, China ratified regulations that permit foreign companies to establish fully operational wholly foreign-owned enterprises that can distribute, act as an agent, retail and wholesale domestically, source domestically, and import and export, and as of 2005, do so all over China. These companies, known as foreign-invested commercial enterprises, also enjoy the 100 percent foreign ownership by which WFOEs are defined.  If you and your company are interested in exploring the possibility of establishing a trading enterprise in China, it is important to know what barriers, advantages and incentives await your organization.
 
FICEs are capable of doing the following activities:

• Import, export, distribution and retailing
• Retailing–i.e. selling goods and related services to individual persons from a fixed location, as well as through TV, telephone, mail order, internet, and vending machines
• Wholesaling – i.e. selling goods and related services to companies and customers from industry, trade or other organizations
• Representative transactions on the basis of provisions (agent, broker)
• Franchising

For more information about China foreign investment commercial enterprises, please contact Dezan Shira & Associates FDI China experts.

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