Accompanying Project for German SMEs in South China (hereinafter referred to as “Project A”) is the incentive package and services that are specifically made for German SMEs to settle in Foshan and open up the local market. By using this Project A, Foshan Sino-German Industrial Services Zone(hereinafter referred to as “we”) hope to be the partner to German companies, giving the most sincere, comprehensive, and intensive assistance during their development in the Greater Bay Area.   

I. What is Project A

Project A is the sum of the Incentive Package and convenient services rendered by Foshan Sino-German Industrial Services Zone, based on the specific needs of German companies for their development in a new place such as the GBA.

Project A doesn’t show up out of thin air. We have done rounds and rounds of communications with AHK, handed out investigations and collecting feedback from German companies, just to find out what you need.

We have sorted out 3 types of your needs for development in South China.

First, investment, including setting up a local company, finding office space, leasing workshops, purchasing land to build office and manufacturing space.

Second, procurement and trade, including purchasing raw materials, semi-finished or finished products.

Third, market development, including looking for distributors and customers.

II. What can Project A offer?

Project A can solve problems and meet the 3 types of needs mentioned above.

(I)  Where to find office location? How to set up a local company?

To start with, we have a professional team fluent in German and English. 50% of team members were once major in German or English, so language is not a problem for us. 40% of team members have experience studying abroad. We know of Westerners mindset, and business communication is barrier-free.

We are backed by government and professional third-party resources. We have the latest government and business information on hand. When you come to Foshan for inspection, we can accompany you and provide professional advice and guidance.

Till now, we have been offering location and other advice to almost all the German companies that had settled down in our Zone, helping them with solving different types of problems such as assist in the application of government paperwork.

(II) How to hire foreign employees? How to attract and retain talents?  

First, we can offer HR related advice and services such as assist in the application of visa, residence permit, work permit, and talent recruit.

Second, we have certain rewards and subsidies for members in the company’s management to apply for. One is rewarding them the amount equal to the locally retained proportion of personal income tax for 3 consecutive years. The other is apartment rent subsidies of 3000 yuan per month for 3 consecutive years.

Third, we can provide cross-culture training for your employees, assist in your employees’ application for rent subsidies, or other services such as their children’s enrollment in schools.

(III) Is there any support to lower operational costs ?  

We will help lower your operational costs by providing different rewards and subsidies.

First is settle-down rewards. Once your local company is registered, then it is eligible to apply for a one-off reward up to 10 million yuan, based on 3 to 5 percent of the actual paid-in capital of the company.

Second is rent subsidies. Once your company in Foshan starts operation on rent property, it is eligible to apply for rent subsidies in the first 5 years--- amount equal to 100% of rent in the first 3 years and amount equal to 50% of rent in the later 2 years. Maximum subsidized area for workshop tops at 5000 square meters every month, and maximum subsidized area for office building tops at 1000 square meters every month.

Third is purchasing subsidies. If your company buys land to build workshop or office space for the 1st time in Sino-German Zone, it is eligible to apply for purchasing subsidies up to 15 million yuan based on 10 percent of the purchasing value.

(IV) Is there any support to market development?

We will help you explore and develop local market online and offline.

We will assist you to utilize 2B and 2C online platforms to develop China’s market, which is the most popular way to push your products to customers in China nowadays.

We also will help you find your distributors and expand your customers offline. ISA - the Sino-German Industrial City Alliance has been working so well since 2016. We now have 27 member cities in China and 20 member cities in Germany. Connection to local industries and companies in these 27 Chinese cities are accessible to German companies.

We also plan to offer exhibition subsidies to German companies. If your company settles down and participate in any fairs in Sino-German Zone as an exhibitor, it is eligible to apply for exhibition subsidy up to 20 thousand yuan.

We will encourage Foshan companies to buy your products. As long as your company settles down in Sino-German Zone and sells products or services, those Foshan companies that purchase your products and services are eligible to apply for purchasing subsidy up to 2 million yuan per year, based on 30 to 50 percent of the purchasing value.

(V) How to blend in Foshan? 

We believe that culture is a bridge to communication and mutual understanding. Therefore, as Madam Liu mentioned earlier, German companies can participate in events hosted in Sino-German Zone. In order to further the ambiance of Sino-German cooperation, we will provide funding to events of all kinds. For example, we will subsidizes any Sino-German cross-culture events up to 1 million yuan, based on 50 percent of the actual event costs. We will also offer organizers of German economic or cultural fairs a one-off subsidy of 300 thousand yuan.

The goal of Project A is to accompany and support German companies throughout their entire life cycle in the Greater Bay Area, from business inspection, location selection, company set-up, to business development. We hope that by providing assistance and rewards and subsidies, every German company in Sino-German Zone grows well.