Coronavirus

Covid-19 has brought dramatic changes to Chinese society and its consumers; and while the spread of the epidemic may be controlled quickly through strict social distancing policies, the hit to COVID-19 on China’s consumer sectors, including food and drink, is especially huge. Ran Guo and Huang Yun examine the current food and drink sector landscape in China as well as some of the emerging consumer trends in the sector. As …

Companies are facing significant operational, financial, and strategic challenges due to the COVID-19 outbreak, although the spread of the virus has slowed down and the situation appears to be stabilising in different regions around the world. As countries restart their economies, businesses need to evaluate the risk of infection and effectively manage their liquidity to survive this difficult period, writes Ines Liu Such times of economic turmoil, however, are when …

A number of businesses have received force majeure certificates from their counterparties in China, which were issued by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in support of the counterparties’ claims for relief from breach-of-contract liability amid the COVID-19 epidemic. What can be done to protect your payments, asks Rosie Howes and Jessica Pyman of Control Risks ? The risk of your business partner failing to perform …

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has delivered the government’s annual work report to the 13th National People’s Congress. The report summarises China’s economic performance last year and outlines the key economic targets for 2020.  Unusually, those targets do not include a GDP growth rate goal for China this year. Dropping the GDP target was expected in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already caused economic activity to slump in China …

China’s post-Covid-19 recovery shows positive results. During the five-day Labour Day holiday, the country recorded around 50 million tourist trips on Friday and Saturday alone, providing some welcome relief to China’s tourism industry.Last week, the government also announced the date for the Two Sessions (Liang Hui), which will take place in Beijing, starting on 21 May. During the event, which was initially scheduled for 5 March, almost 5000 delegates from …

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt is the Minister for investment jointly at the Department for International Trade, and at the department for Business, energy and industrial strategy. He spoke to CBBC members about his role, his ambitions to support British business in China and the future of trade in a post virus world.  In his role as double minister, Lord Grimstone’s role is, he says, simply to attract investment into …

CBBC member company Zymurgorium is Manchester’s first and largest distillery, famous for making gins, vodkas and rums, as well as for inventing Parma violet gin liqueur. However, right now, they are busy making sanitiser to help in the effort to halt the spread of the Coronavirus. The company has been busy transforming its new facilities from making alcoholic drinks to alcohol sanitiser in response to the demand following the Coronavirus …

The time for speculation is over: China has revealed the extent of the damage that Covid-19 has inflicted on its economy at the start of this year. The National Bureau of Statistics’s (NBS) data for the first three months of 2020 shows a dramatic 6.8 percent fall in China’s GDP from a year ago. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the Chinese economy shrunk by 9.8 percent. Industrial production experienced the biggest drop, …

During a recent discussion with CBBC members, Dame Barbara provided expert insights and took the opportunity to detail The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO’s) response to COVID-19, introducing the three key phases to the FCO’s work in the face of the pandemic: humanitarian evacuations and the provision and sourcing of aid; staff drawdown and the activation of remote working operations; and procurement of ventilators and other associated essential medical equipment, …

By Dor Barak of PTL Group At the time of publication, the Coronavirus crisis in China has begun to lift and business conditions are creeping back to some kind of normality. Nonetheless, the spread of the virus over recent weeks has shaken the fabric of business proceedings both in China and the wider world. Against this backdrop of lockdown, the companies that have fared best have been the ones that …