Suzhou Joint Venture, also Suzhou JV, is one common type of foreign investment, along with Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprise (WFOE), Foreign-invested Partnership (FIPE), and Representative Office (RO) as most popular types. Joint Venture (JV) in Suzhou refers to a legal entity established by at least one Chinese business entity and foreign parties, in a way of shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance.
China has decreased the number of restricted industries for foreign investment from 43 to 15, based on the 2015 catalogue issued by the Chinese government authority. That means a foreign investor could even enter previously-restricted industry for foreign investment like telecom, and transportation sectors.
Procedures for Registering a Suzhou Joint Venture
1. Lock target for an industry you plan for investment
When a foreign investor is contemplating to invest in Suzhou, the first thing is to lock a targeted industry or sector. It will have direct impact on your survival of your business. In this way, which kind of business you set up will be naturally confirmed, like manufacturing, trading or consulting, that means, basically, your business scope is confirmed.
2. Define Registered Capital of Your Joint Venture
Registered Capital refers to an initial investment, which could be used in your joint venture’s operation after paid into your joint venture’s account. Actually, the Chinese government has no specific requirements on China-registered joint venture now and it can change considerably, but it needs to be reasonably defined based on your business activities you conduct. What matters to investors is that it could be subscribed in a period to time and even initial contribution is not asked before the joint venture registration.
3. Locate Your Company’s Registered Address
For your joint venture incorporation, an address is needed. According to your business plan like if you employ other staff, you can decide if you use a virtual office or actual office. You are advised to locate the registered city based on your business, and the choice you make would be beneficial for your company’s image building. Taking high-tech industry, you may consider Shenzhen as a city of Chinese Silicon Valley. Meanwhile,
4. Appoint the Members of Your Joint Venture
At least one Chinese domestic legal entity and other foreign investment parties are the basis. You need to appoint members like legal representative, general manager, monitor and so on. Since the Chinese government has promulgated its own corporate laws and regulations, the appointment of all members should be in accordance with related laws.
5. Prepare one set of Statutory Documents
Once all the basis details of a joint venture confirmed, it will comes to a statutory documentation process for the members to sign. It has certain format for those documents, so you may turn to one professional agent for guidelines to the signature.
6. Apply Business License and Approval Certificate
What you need next is to submit all the required documents to the government and apply for business license and approval certificate in certain departments. Two main are related with this step, including the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and the Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC).
7. Curve the Joint Venture Stamps
After getting the business license, it is the time to curve the company’s stamp in local police security department. So you can select what kind of stamps you need based on your needs among official stamp, financial stamp, legal representative’s stamp, invoice (fapiao) stamp, custom stamp and so on.
8. Open a Bank Account of Your Company
To open a bank account of your joint venture is crucial for your business startup in Suzhou. You’d better select one in Suzhou, concerned some factors you need consider for the bank: trustworthy, easy to proceed and convenient for your transactions.
9. Apply for Other Special License
Other special licenses may be also concerned with your business. If some conduct international trading, one essential is the import and export license; if someone is involved in food industry, food circulation license is also a must for you to apply.
Contact Us
If you have further inquires, please do not hesitate to contact Tannet at anytime, anywhere by simply visiting Tannet’s website english.tannet-group.com, or calling Hong Kong hotline at 852-27826888 or China hotline at 86-755-82143422, or emailing to tannet-solution@hotmail.com. You are also welcome to visit our office situated in 16/F, Taiyangdao Bldg 2020, Dongmen Rd South, Luohu, Shenzhen, China.
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