Sichuan’s legal heavyweight ZhongHao Law Firm recently inked an agreement with the Hungarian consulate in Chongqing to facilitate legal advisory for Sino-European trade makers in the wake of the torrid influx of foreign investment into China’s western frontier, and more PRC companies venturing into Eastern Europe for trade and asset acquisitions.
As China shifts its manufacturing base inwards from its coastal seaboard, and more and more foreign companies target the vast consumer base of China’s Western provinces, ZhongHao linked up its home base Sichuan with Hungary, which recently opened a consulate in Chongqing, to make the strategic move of bridging China and the gateway to central Europe.
At the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding with the Hungarian consulate in Chongqing on Dec. 7, 2011, ZhongHao’s managing partner Robin Yuan Xiaobin said his firm’s extensive experience on advising multinationals’ foreign direct investment in Sichuan, and its legal counseling to PRC companies’ outbound investment in Europe will prove beneficial to parties from both sides. ZhongHao counts American retail conglomerate Walmart, auto giants, and many Fortune 500 companies as its clients.
Through referrals from Hungary’s Chongqing consulate, Yuan said Hungarian or European enterprises investing in Sichuan will now be able to leverage on ZhongHao’s expertise to increase the success rate of their ventures. He added that Chinese companies from Western China could count on his firm for referrals to invest in Europe, and the firm would provide them with convenient, reliable, and risk-averse legal advisory and protection.
Set up in 1997, ZhongHao has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Chongqing and Guiyang. It has also opened a representative “window” office in New York City. ZhongHao’s overseas ambition was realised when it entered a strategic partnership with Detroit-headquartered Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn last summer. The partnership aims to capture more deal flow between U.S. manufacturers in addition to global auto makers’ investment in Sichuan.
Bilateral trade between China and Hungary reached a new level last June when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the latter’s capital city Budapest, and facilitated the signing of a series of strategic investments. They include Huawei Technologies’ plan to expand its distribution center in Hungary, as well as China’s move to help Hungary modernise its railways and purchase Hungarian bonds. Wen also pledged that China's state development bank would provide 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion) for development projects between Hungary and China.
China has become Hungary’s seventh-largest trading partner with the eastern European nation embracing China as its third-biggest trading partner in 2010. Bilateral trade between the two nations amounted to $8.72 billion in 2010, up 28 percent compared with previous year, according to data from the Chinese customs. Wen hopes the bilateral trade will reach $20 billion by 2015. ALB
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