“All aBout China Summit (ABC Summit)”, an event bringing in expert speakers from China to Thailand was held on July 15 to discuss the booming potential of conducting business in China. Focusing on varied themes such as digital marketing, startups, logistics and Chinese laws and regulation, the talks opened up new perspective for aspiring Thai entrepreneurs to make it big in the world’s new superpower. Professor Haifeng Huang, and alumnus Mahmoud Berrajaa, from Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), were invited to give talks and share their insights on the summit.
 

The speakers, each an expert in their own field, represented a diverse set of values and ideals and shared their own stories about the immense opportunities for new talents in China’s business oriented cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, etc.

Haifeng Huang (right), Assistant Dean of Peking University HSBC Business School.

 Professor Huang specializes in sustainability in business. He spoke about "Understanding China's New Image" , discussing the growth of modern China. He highlighted that the whole world needs to understand the view of urbanization, and environmentally-friendly business development. His talk delved into the rapidly expanding dynamics of China in just half a century. He also stressed the importance of understanding China’s rich history, as it is a very important facet of doing business and is an essential element for entrepreneurial success.
 

 Matthew Brennan, founder of China Channel

Matthew  Brennan runs a major international marketing consulting firm in China. He discussed China’s marketing and e-lifestyle trends, which described the development of Chinese lifestyle and consumption behavior. Nowadays, a large section of the population in urban areas heavily relies on the internet for all their consumption needs – from shopping to finance management. He commented how shopping had been revolutionized after the introduction of smartphones. As a result, Chinese lifestyle of youngsters and old people alike has began to connect to online applications, especially Wechat, which is the most popular Chinese social-messaging app. He talked about the latest technological inventions, which were all developed as entrepreneurial ventures, such as the sleeping pods and power banks; and how they have become commodities of daily life.  What was most interesting about his talk was how China incessantly developed fascinating technology such as the Bingo Box, the drone delivery system.
 

Premchai Charoenrerkdee, Deputy Managing Director of Asset Bright

Asset Bright is the WeChat financial services provider of Thailand. After becoming a game-changer in the way people pay for everyday transactions and communicate in China, WeChat is now bringing the ease of communication and finance to Thailand. Charoenrerkdee shared some valuable insights on how to get ready to deal with Chinese customers and discussed the importance of online payments through Chinese applications. His talk provided a deep understanding of the basic challenges that businesses might have to overcome when dealing with the unique payment systems in China.
 

Chanin Udomsrirat (the second, left), Project Director, Shoot2China Marketing; Montaya Jongchaidejvong( right) , Managing Director of Siam 928 InterTrade (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Import Cargo Exporters

Chanin Udomsrirat works as an online consultant specializing in Social Meida marketing. His talk "Using Chinese Social Media for Thai Business", described the overall picture of the Chinese tourist market, Free Independent Traveler (FIT) and online media usage. He also supplemented his talks by sharing a couple of case studies of successful Thai businesses using social media in China to promote marketing. He made a very interesting analogy that a lot of influential business leaders in Asia now recognized Thailand as the “Influencer” which the Chinese also call KOL (Key Opinion Leader).

With import-export business being one of the most popular ventures started by foreigners based in China, Jongchaidejvong through Cargo described the preparation of import-export documentation and delved in to the process of cross-border trade and regulations.
 

Mahmoud Berrajaa, Founder of Inno Magi

Mahmoud Berrajaa started importing high-tech products from China when he was still a student pursuing a master’s degree in Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), China. He spoke about how he saw a vast business opportunity in Shenzhen, China’s “silicon valley” and talked about his company, InnoMagi Innovative Firm. He shared his experiences in importing and exporting innovative products from China and highlighted some fields in which budding entrepreneurs can start a business. He also discussed the need to understand the market and how to properly organize the business strategy with the use of marketing tools, such as SWOT analysis and bench-marking, both of which are key factors in long-term business growth in the Chinese market.
 

Simon Choi, Founder of Acme Ardent Group

Simon Choi, represents an organization that is well known for its legal consultancy in  Foreign Investment and Law in China. With a very interesting talk on “Doing Business in China: A Legal Perspective " , he discussed the decision factors to set up various types of businesses in China such as Representative Office, Joint Venture, and Partnership, analysing the pros and cons of each. He also mentioned the finer nuances of setting up a business in China and the different elements that one needs to be aware of such as the tax system, employment regulations, trademark registration, product safety standards, etc.
 

 
The summit, which turned out to be a very enriching and successful event,  had all the participants going back with some meaningful guidance on fostering Sino-Thai business opportunities. Commented Methawee Tan, a recent PHBS graduate and  the event organizer, "We wanted the attendees to gain some knowledge from coming to our event. Because of this, we chose questions and topics of discussions from the participants in the previous events to improve our work. We believe that this event will be a business link that connects the Thai-Chinese trade community and will enable Thai entrepreneurs to be able to make it big into the Chinese market in the near future."

By Markey Tan
Edited by Annie Jin