On Friday, 19 June 2015 we were fortunate to have attended the Hurun Report Global Rich List Summit held in the BAFTA building in Piccadilly, London.
Mr Rupert Hoogewerf opened the event and spoke about the background of Hurun Report as well as the current dynamics in business relations between China and the UK in his opening address. This topic was particularly relevant as the theme of the summit was engaging with the Chinese private sector. He is an eloquent and engaging speaker and was roundly applauded.
There were three panel discussions:
In the first discussion the main topic was How Chinese Entrepreneurs Can Help Britain and the panellists discussed these particular points:
1) Potential employment generated by Chinese companies entering the UK market, examples being Wanda Group setting up their UK office and Sunseeker being acquired by a Chinese company;
2) How Britain has opened up its doors to Chinese investors/investments by the easing of various regulations;
3) The current economic condition of the UK and the EU, and how such conditions can affect Chinese entrepreneurs’ decision to enter the UK market.
Mr Li Jinyuan of Tiens Group, most well known for taking all of his 6,400 employees on a luxurious holiday to Paris and Nice, France, was also present at this panel discussion and attracted many questions from the audience.
The second discussion was ‘Building Your Brands with Britain’, which was highly relevant as all of the members of the delegation have come to the UK hoping to globalise their companies and brands. The panellists included the youngest self-made billionaire Wang Qicheng (at the age of 32) of Hakim and Jim Ye of Goldenport, as well as other British brands such as British Airways. The panellists even briefly discussed British Airways being the main carrier for a Hong Kong to Beijing car rally organised by Jim Ye (supercars are to be transported from London to Hong Kong before being transported back to London from Beijing after the rally). Mr Wang Qicheng also offered his unique and broad marketing platform to British Airways and the British Film Industry.
The third panel discussion was on Overseas Investments and the panellist Mr Wang Xin of Fuhua spoke at length about his plans for expanding his current company globally and establishing a presence in the UK.
The summit concluded with a dinner, during which, various representatives from UK companies and organisations spoke and thanked the attendees and congratulated Mr Hoogewerf on an excellent summit; they hoped that it had been beneficial in bringing clarity to Chinese investment in the UK.
As was to be expected, the dinner was exceptional and our attendees Kate Hollyer and Angela Lei thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful setup, wonderful food and local wines, as well as meeting with various company representatives from both China and the UK.
We would like to thank the Chopsticks Club and Ms H-J Colston, one of the joint CEO’s from the Chopsticks Club, for organising and informing Gherson of the wonderful and well-run event.
We look forward to maintaining the excellent business connections we were able to make at the summit and Gherson hopes to be able to provide Immigration and Nationality assistance to some of the attendees we met, in particular in assisting with Tier 1 Entrepreneur visas.
Gherson is a specialist Immigration and nationality firm providing UK bound Immigration assistance for individuals and businesses.