MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convetion, Exhibition)

China’s national government offers a tempting variety of financial incentives designed to lure inbound foreign investment, some of which were introduced by this author in the article “Investing in China: Tax Incentives”. However, additional incentives offered by provincial and local governments significantly sweeten the investor’s overall incentive package. These incentives tend to become more generous as one moves westward from the investment-saturated coastal provinces to China’s heavily populated interior, allowing the investor to cash in on China’s fierce domestic competition.

Central China’s Henan province, for example, offers manufacturing-oriented Foreign Invested Enterprises (FIEs) 100% waivers of business tax and a variety of local administrative fees. Furthermore, FIEs engaged in technology transfer, development work, and related consulting may apply for a full refund of business tax already paid.

Municipal governments, however, are often even more generous than provincial governments. Although various incentives are offered by Chinese municipal governments, the city of Zhengzhou (a metropolis of about 4.4 million people in central China) makes a good case study, if for no reason other than that the author is more familiar with its policies.

Zhengzhou rewards local FIEs in various ways:

Tax Breaks for Local Reinvestment of Profits Local FIEs that reinvest their profits within Zhengzhou will receive a 30% refund of the locally retained portion of corporate income tax actually paid on these reinvested profits (the national government offers an even bigger tax refund applicable to the nationally retained portion).

Investment in “Pillar” Industries and State-owned Enterprises Zhengzhou offers a three-year, 50% refund of the locally retained portion of corporate income tax paid on FIE funds invested in certain designated “pillar industries”. It also offers a financial incentive for investing in and reorganizing provincially administrated state-owned enterprises, and this incentive is magnified if the FIE retains a certain percentage of the enterprise’s original employees after reorganization.

Inward Remittance of Export Earnings Zhengzhou offers export incentives in the form of cash payouts of approximately 0.2% to 0.5% of every dollar of hard currency export earnings remitted inward (the highest payouts are reserved for the export of technologically advanced products).

Matching Funds The Zhengzhou municipal finance administration will provide one-to-one matching funds for the international market development funds of small and medium-sized export enterprises that are supervised at the provincial level (whether an enterprise is supervised at the provincial level or the national level depends on how much money has been invested in the enterprise, i.e., its “Registered Capital”).

Anti-Dumping Insurance Zhengzhou will assist FIEs in responding to anti-dumping initiatives, and will also subsidize expenses arising from participation by exporting enterprises in anti-dumping responses, as long as these initiatives are not otherwise subsidized by national and provincial authorities (which they often are). It may seem strange for an American company to establish a subsidiary in China, be sued for dumping by the United States, and then receive subsidies from the Chinese government for the expenses necessary to defend against the suit, but it’s possible.

Interest Subsidies for Loans Secured by Tax Refund Accounts. Zhengzhou will subsidize an amount equal to 70% of the interest due on loans secured by a tax refund account. If the FIE has no such loans, Zhengzhou will grant a subsidy equal to 50% of the interest that would have been paid on such a loan had it been taken out – the Zhengzhou municipal government will even provide the fund from which the interest is subsidized. Enterprises with an export volume of five million US dollars or more in the previous year that are verified by the National Tax Bureau to have increased tax refunds due for the current year will enjoy a 100% interest subsidy.

Export Incentives An export enterprise with either (i) a yearly export volume of at least ten million US dollars or more and actual export growth of more than 25% over the previous year, or (ii) a yearly export volume of at least five million US dollars, actual export growth of more than 40% over the previous year, and inward remittances from exports of at least 80%, will be designated a “Zhengzhou City Advanced Foreign Exchange Generating Export Enterprise” and awarded 30,000 RMB (roughly $3,500 US dollars) as long as it has not committed any serious regulatory violations during the same year.

Although a few of the foregoing incentives represent relatively small payouts, they are numerous and can make a significant difference when combined with the broad range of incentives offered by the national government.

David A. Carnes is a California attorney working for California Industrial City in Zhengzhou, China. His website, Start a Company in China, is at www.chinacompanystartupguide.com/58.html and offers free, step-by-step information on how to establish a business presence in China.

At one time there was little to distinguish between one credit card and another. About the only difference was the provider’s name, and how much credit they were willing to extend to you.

Nowadays all that has changed, of course. Fierce competition means that credit card issuers are falling over one another to offer you rewards and incentives, in a bid to get you to sign up with them rather than one of their rivals.

In this article I’ll be looking at the wide range of incentives on offer from credit card providers, and offering some advice on how best to choose between them. But before we get on to that, I must sound a note of caution.

If you are likely to leave a balance outstanding on your credit card, rewards should NOT be your first priority when deciding what card to apply for.

There are two main reasons for this. Most important, if you are paying interest on an outstanding balance, the cost of this will almost certainly outweigh the benefit of any rewards. And secondly, some card issuers only offer incentives if you clear your balance every month. If you are going to be leaving a balance on which interest is charged, therefore, your first priority should be to pick a card with a low APR (annual percentage rate) and/or a long interest-free introductory period.

If you are confident that you will be able to pay off your balance every month, you should certainly shop around for a card offering the rewards and incentives you want. Here are just a few examples of the kind of offers currently available…

Cashback – This is a very popular incentive. For every dollar you spend on your card, the card issuer will give you back some money, usually once a year. The amounts vary, but typically range from 0.5 to 2 per cent of total spending. There is often a cap on the total amount you can get back in a year.

Gas Discounts – With the price of gas seemingly going up every day, any way of getting a discount has to be worth considering. One card offering this type of reward is the Discover

Did you know there was a way to get more from the same eBay purchases you are already making? Same goes for the purchase of downloadable products through the ClickBank marketplace.

As you probably already know eBay can have some tremendous bargains. It makes clear economic sense to shop there – or at least evaluate the availability of the items you’re looking for and prevailing prices for those items so that you can compare. Similarly, ClickBank is great marketplace to pick-up all manner of digital product from e-books to software, from templates to code scripts.

What some people don’t know, however, is that you can get more out the same exact purchases you’re now making on eBay and ClickBank.

How?

Truth of the matter is some eBay/ ClickBank affiliates will give incentive bonuses if you shop through their affiliate sites. Everything is the same. The same search tools, the same auctions and offerings, the same eBay and ClickBank. The only thing different from the buyer’s point of view is that you link up to the eBay and ClickBank sites through an affiliate’s site.

This strategy is what I have done with my own eBay/ ClickBank site. The deal is deliciously simple. Buyers who buy through the site and then forward a copy of their e-mail receipt will receive a free download link to lots of great e-books, DVD’s, online videos and other goodies. All 100% free. Hence, buyers get more from the same purchases.

Can you apply this idea with your own affiliate sites? People do respond to incentives. If you try this, I do have one major caveat. Make sure that the bonuses you use are bona fide – read: not junk, not sales pieces, or “special reports.” You must provide genuine content.

Daniel Hall, is the owner of the successful eBay and ClickBank affiliate site, http://www.DealzORama.com where you’ll find great incentives to entice eBay and ClickBank buyers to use DealzORama.com to make all their eBay/ClickBank purchases. He offers hundreds of dollars in free bonuses when buyers forward their e-mail receipts and receive a download link with ton’s of FREE goodies which is constantly updated with new gifts.

There are no rules, which dictate the number of different groups of people who can be included in any one incentive program. Each additional group requires its own special treatment.

When the target group has been selected, you must:

Keep participation simple

Talk to some members of the intended group before finalising your planning and, without specifying your particular plans, seek their views, their objectives, their needs and their likely response.

Too many assumptions should not be made without crossing checking them with the target group.

It’s essential to research the size of the group and this is quite simple if it is an internal program. However, if outside your own organisation, you will need to ensure that you have the most accurate figures possible.

You should not proceed until you have carefully calculated the size of your participating audience.

The options available on how to motivate people are almost limitless, and are as varied as the imagination will allow.

Here’s a list of important criteria that are equally relevant to any group you choose:

Activities should be chosen that are of mutual advantage to both your organisation and the participant, even if that advantage is not immediately obvious. People will be more contented and receptive to other incentive schemes, if they can see tangible benefits from the previous program.

It must be made easy for people to participate by:

Keeping the rules simple
Clearly explaining to them how they can participate and what they must do to enter the program
Sending more than one message to the target audience, to aid recall of what you are going to do.
Building up anticipation by releasing the details of incentives and the conditions in stages, if you can’t get your groups together in the one place, at the same time.
“Selling the value” of the rewards and not taking for granted that potential participants will readily agree with your enthusiasm for the rewards of the plan.

These activities are a necessary part of the action to get people into the program enthusiastically, and they must not be short-cut.

When should you commence the incentive program?

There is no doubt that an incentive program must be carefully timed. Unless that occurs, incentives can work against you and ‘anytime’ can be extremely harmful.

Many otherwise sound incentive schemes founder only on that one aspect of timing. Timing is the segment of the total program you have most control over.

You need to consider the needs of all the participants before an attempt is made to submit the ‘best’ time.

Also, you need to make sure that your own house is in order and be certain that you can supply your products and services at the planned time.

Too often, an incentive period is chosen and elementary, important activities are overlooked. Public holidays, machinery maintenance periods and staff leave are all potential, but identifiable, interruptions to the flow of goods and services that are the subject of your incentive program.

The loss of credibility, caused by these oversights, can be irretrievable, the cost in expenses high, and both your planning and ambitions frustrated.

Ken MacKenzie’s web site “The Marketing Update” is at http://www.themarketingupdate.com. He has had some 30 years experience in small business marketing and public relations and, prior to establishing Ken MacKenzie Communications in 1993, he was a Senior Consultant for over five years with International Public Relations Pty Ltd. He has also consulted to the United States Foreign Commercial Service, based in Sydney Australia. As a Consultant, Ken has managed many accounts including Monier Roofing Limited, NUS International Pty Ltd, MasterFoods of Australia, the Jakarta Promotion Board, the Australian Made Campaign, Boral Roofing, Boral Bricks, Boral Plasterboard, Frontline Business Services and Sydney Point of Sale. In his consulting capacity to the United States Department of Commerce in Sydney, Ken served as Principal Advisor to the United States Trade Centre Director on major U.S. trade event planning and implementation of numerous U.S. Government sponsored trade shows covering many different industry groups.