CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

ANRAN ZHANG CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ CHALLENGES OF BILATERAL INVESTMENT BETWEEN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND CHINA: INVESTMENT POLICY AND LEGAL CONCERNS Anran Zhang 1 Abstract: This paper addresses the challenges behind the Bilateral Investment between the Czech Republic and China in respect to the investment policy and legal concerns. Bilateral investment between the two states are critical to the respective economy, more broadly, to the global economy. Although both countries are eager to promote foreign investment, the countries still encounter several problems. Firstly, the foreign investment policy of the two countries stands in different situations. Secondly, from a legal perspective, both countries have little investment dispute settlement experience, but both sides also meet legal challenges, in particular, on jurisdictional provisions of successive BITs and legal standing of SOEs. This paper intends to discover these difficulties in order to offer suggestions to the bilateral investment between the two countries. Resumé: Tento příspěvek se zabývá výzvami plynoucími z dvoustranných investic mezi Českou republikou a Čínou, zvláště pokud jde o její vztah k investiční politice a právním zájmům. Bilaterální investice mezi oběma státy jsou důležité pro ekonomiku každého státu a v širším slova smyslu, pro globální ekonomiku. Přestože se obě země snaží podporovat zahraniční investice, země se stále potýkají s několika problémy. Za prvé, zahraniční investiční politika obou zemí se nachází v různých situacích. Za druhé, z právního hlediska mají obě země jen málo zkušeností s řešením investičních sporů, ale obě strany čelí právním výzvám, zejména pokud jde o jurisdikční ustanovení v BIT a právní postavení (legitimaci) státních podniků. Cílem tohoto příspěvku je analyzovat tyto otázky a navrhnout řešení, pokud jde o dvoustranné investice mezi oběma zeměmi. Key Words: Bilateral Investment, China, Czech Republic. About the Author: Anran Zhang is doctoral researcher at Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics & Erasmus China Law Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Introduction When a tourist wishes to cycle around the city of Prague, one only needs to unlock a sharing bike using a smartphone app. The Sharing Bike company – Ofo, based in China – successfully launched in Prague in the late of 2017 after its massive success in China in 2016. It is a simple example that shows Chinese investment is playing an active role in the Czech Republic, and broadly in Europe. This paper intends to address the challenges of bilateral investment between the Czech Republic and China. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the most significant and most constant external source of finance for developing economies all over the world. 2 With regard to the Czech Republic-China investment, FDI covers a variety of assets invested in connection with 1 This article was partially drafted when the author worked as a researcher at Europa Institute, Leiden University. Email: a.zhang@law.eur.nl; a.zhang@law.leidenuniv.nl. 2 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Investment Report 2017, x. 1.

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