Since its winning of the Olympic bids for 2008, World Expo 2010 and accession to the WTO, companies, both local and foreign are itching their way into Chinese markets, either looking for business opportunities or to expand their business operation in China.

China has been the fastest-growing nation for the past quarter of a century with an average annual GDP growth rate in excess of 10%. Per capita income has grown at an average annual rate of more than 8% over the last three decades. China saw its export and import volume in service trade (excluding government service) stood at US$ 250.91 billion in 2007,an increase of over 30% from the previous year as according to its the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) report in June 2008.

China as the second largest economy in the world after the US, with a GDP of over US$7 trillion (2007) when measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. In November 2007, it became the third largest in the world after the US and Japan with a nominal GDP of US$3.42 trillion in 2007 when measured in foreign exchange-rate terms.

China is the world's largest producer of rice and is among the principal sources of corn (maize), wheat, soybeans, peanuts (groundnuts), cotton and tobacco. China is one of the world's largest producers of several industrial and mineral products, including cotton cloth,cotton yarn, antimony,tungsten,crude oil, coal and other products.

China's mineral resources are probably among the richest in the world but are only partially developed. China has acquired some highly sophisticated production facilities through trade and also has built several advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated defense and power technologies.

In 2007, the European Union was still China's largest trading partner, and Japan its third largest. China's Trade with the European Union rose 27% year-on-year to US$356.15 billion while Japan reached over US$236.02 billion, up 13.9 percent. Trade between Russia and China increased 44%, year-on-year, in 2007 to US$48.2 billion.Further readings on SearchAnythingEurope.com and SearchAnythingRussia.com

China-US Trade, which totaled only US$5 billion in 1980, rose to $387 billion in 2007. China overtook Japan to become the third largest U.S. export market, and overtook Canada to become the largest source of U.S. imports.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAmerica.com.com

Trade volume between China and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) hit US$202.6 billion in 2007, up 25.9 percent year-on-year, as announced by the China-ASEAN Business Council.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAsia.com.com

Since its adoption of the "Four Modernizations" - agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defence, just a generation ago, China's share of world economic output has grown from 3.4 per cent to almost 12 per cent by 2000. China's booming economy has been hailed as a true economic miracle by many.

China provides huge investment opportunity for many producers of commodities and companies or investors who wish to find a way to place their money into a rich market. On average, China's economy grows by 10% annually. There continues to be encouraging demand for investment and business growth in China for the next decade.

All the eyes of the business world are oriented towards China. This "economical wonder" is the source of many entrepreneurial opportunities, which seem easily accessible. Who doesn't what to be part of the Chinese miracle economy? Most of us want a piece of this huge profit cake. There are, nevertheless, many examples of business that struggle to enter China, consequence of a narrow view of costs that lie within Chinese business environment. Hopefully there are more examples of success stories that have managed those costs in a pro-active way.

Motorola has done considerable investments to enter China, and most of it was dedicated to technology transfer. They knew the costs that were associated to it, and they were one of the pioneer foreign firms to achieve such business success, beginning in 1987 with a representative office in Beijing. The pressure of transferring technology lies in creating your own competition in a bubbling business environment.

Foreign firms are eager and impatient of entering this dynamic market, however the Chinese business process is far from what foreign companies are used to. Initiating Joint Ventures with a Chinese partner could be an adventure full of twists and turns. In our determination to do business in China, some forget that we need them more than they need us; and unfortunately we are not sole players in this quest. Many of the established firms, have encountered time wasting related costs, and delays mainly due to communication and cultural issues.

Setting up legal firm requirements, and gathering the necessary documents and information to kick off the implementation procedure can be a hassle if done inappropriately. For example, while the capital requirement for setting up a Wholly Own Foreign Enterprise can run in excess of US$100,000, this doesn't need to be the case. In fact, the capital requirement actually varies between industries and could indeed be less than this. Moreover, often all capital is not required up front and can be dripped fed into the business over a period of time.

China has been, and is still seen as a large pool of cheap labor.With the economical boom, especially in fast developing cities such as, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou... the cost of qualified labor is following china's trends: leading to fast growing wages. Companies also realize once set up, that managing Chinese staff is not only about opening a cross-cultural management book... It is once again a complex journey to achieve.Furthermore, having access to quality and responsive Chinese staff is a definite competitive advantage, instinctively reducing the amount of time lost and inevitably, the amount of hidden costs.

Fortunately, the Chinese business environment is gaining more and more flexibility, and business frameworks of foreign set up firms are available.Feedback and experiences are now accessible to have a clearer view of the does and don't while doing business in China. Likewise, there will always be ways to compress hidden costs, and by that, ways of gaining increasingly competitive positions.