Our parent company, Sinovantage International, has just launched a new social networking site called ShanghaiZoom. The site targets expatriates living in Shanghai primarily but also anyone working or studying in this city. The Facebook-like website has many sections including blogs, forums, classifieds, events, albums, videos, business listings etc. Its main function however would be to allow its members to stay in touch with friends and family, and meet new people in Shanghai. If you are living in Shanghai you will definitely need to sign up.

The address: www.shanghaizoom.com

Please note that following a decision of our Marshall Islands registry, starting January 1st, 2012, the penalty fee for companies that have a formation or annual of 12 months delinquent will be raised to USD600, while the reinstatement fee for entities that have been annulled will be raised to USD6,000.

Only active companies can apply for certificate of good standing, which is a necessary document for bank account opening or modifications. Please make sure to pay the renewal fees in time to avoid your company being delinquent or annulled.

If you want to check the status of your Marshall Islands company, please contact us at info@sinoinvest.hk

Sinoinvest Consulting will attend the 3rd Expat Service Expo, to be held in Beijing Solana Lifestyle Shopping Park, from October 14th to 16th. This Expo will combine an international culture carnival and is expected to see the participation of thousands of expatriates living in the Beijing area.

If you visit the Expo, you are warmly invited to take a look at our stand which number is #48.

The Management
Sinoinvest Consulting

Sinoinvest Consulting will be attending the 23rd China International Franchise Exhibition, to be held in Guangzhou, Guandgong Province, from September 16th to 18th. This will be the opportunity for us to meet both franchisors and franchisees and discuss potential partnership opportunities.

You can find us at the booth G43. For any information or meeting request, please contact Ms Joanne Choi (joanne@sinoinvest.hk)

Starting from August 1st, 2011, the HKSAR government will increase the business registration certificate fee from the current HKD450 to HKD2,450. As a result, as all incorporation consultants providing Hong Kong company set up services, we will update our Hong Kong incorporation packages from that date.

Yearly maintenance charges will be increased as well by HKD2,000 to reflect the change in the BR yearly charge.

We are happy to announce the opening of our new office in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Located in Luohu district, at the 24th Floor of the new Honglong Century Plaza, the office will primarily assist us in providing local incorporation and offshore company registration services to our clients in the Shenzhen area but also elsewhere in the province, including Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Shantou.

The new office address is: Unit 24G, Block B, Honglong Century Plaza, 4002 Shennan East Road, Luohu District, Shenzhen 518000. The phone numbers are 0755-3338-5987 / 3338-5988, and the fax number 0755-3338-5998; the office can also be reached by email at shenzhen@sinoinvest.hk

Foreign direct investment in China climbed in February, indicating investor confidence in the world’s second-biggest economy.

Investment rose 32.2 percent to $7.8 billion last month from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website today. That compares with a 23.4 percent gain in January.

Raising wages and reducing income inequality will be among the government’s top tasks in the next five years as the nation switches the focus of growth to consumption from investment, Wen said on March 5.

Foreign investment in the first two months rose 27.1 percent to $17.8 billion, the commerce ministry said today. The number of newly approved foreign-invested companies in the first two months of the year rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier to 3,399, according to the statement.

An annual growth target of 7 percent over the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) has been set to ensure sustainable development, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday.

“We must not any longer sacrifice the environment for the sake of rapid growth and reckless roll-outs, as that would result in unsustainable growth featuring industrial overcapacity and intensive resource consumption,” Wen said during an online chat with Internet users.

The target was lower than the 7.5 percent set for the previous five years, when the country’s economy actually grew at an annual rate of around 10 percent from 2006 to 2010.

China’s GDP growth reached 10.3 percent last year. Most economists expect growth to be around 9 percent this year, and slightly less in 2012.

Increased efforts will be made to improve people’s living standards, and the government will adopt new performance evaluations for local governments to hasten economic restructuring.

He also promised to strengthen efforts to contain increases in prices of food and other commodities, which have stoked inflation. Maintaining price stability has always been a priority as “rapid price rises have affected people’s lives and even social stability”, he said, adding adequate grain supplies and abundant foreign exchange reserves would help curb inflation.

The consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.9 percent in January from a year earlier as food prices increased 10.3 percent due to rising demand and a drought in key grain-growing regions. Food accounts for one third of the CPI basket. The CPI increased 4.6 percent in December and 5.1 percent in November, a 28-month high.

The government has taken a slew of measures to keep prices under control, including increasing grain output and boosting drought relief. To mop up excess liquidity, the central bank has lifted the reserve requirement ratio (the minimum reserve banks must hold) for commercial banks eight times since the start of last year, and hiked interest rates three times since mid-October.

The government set the CPI target at 4 percent this year, a goal most analysts said will be hard to achieve.

According to the China Quarterly Macroeconomic Model, a study jointly conducted by Xiamen University and the National University of Singapore, China’s CPI will hit 5.4 percent in 2011, 2.07 percentage points more than last year. The study predicted it will ease to 4.55 percent in 2012.

Cyprus company formation

Starting from February 2011 Sinoinvest Consulting offers Cyprus company registration services.

Cypriot offshore companies advantages:
- There is only 10% declared corporate profit tax
- Dividends to shareholders are tax free.
- Double tax treaties have been concluded between Cyprus and 38 countries, Russia, Ukraine including.
- Offshore companies situated in Cyprus may purchase various items for their own needs duty free.
- The owner of a Cypriot off-shore company may remain anonymous using our nominee services.

Our clients can choose from 2 packages.

Premium package

Includes Cyprus company formation, a nominee director, a nominee shareholder, a nominee secretary, and the opening of a corporate bank account, for a total of 4900 USD.

Standard package

Includes company incorporation documents, registered office and company secretary for a fee of 2700 USD.

We can open accounts for your company in the following banks in Cyprus:

- Hellenic Bank;

- Marfin Laiki Bank;

- Bank of Cyprus;

- Eurobank.

For more details please visit our Cyprus incorporation page.

China attracted record-high direct investment volume – 106 billion dollars in 2010, which is a leap of 17.4%, compared to the previous year.

An opposite tendency was observed in 2009, when investments shrunk by 2.3%.

Last year, approximately 20% of all foreign investments were directed to the real estate sector. At the same time, the inflow of investments to poorer and less-developed regions in the country increased significantly.

While, China’s external investments rose even faster. They have increased by 36.3%, totaling 59 billion dollars. The Chinese companies bought ready-made companies abroad, as well as a variety of already launched perspective projects.