Georg Boehm, chief operating manager for China office of a German enterprise, shared his insights on doing business in China under the topic “German Companies in Shanghai” at China Europe International Business School.

During his presentation, Boehm was joined online by his friend Dr Jörg Gabert, who is the general manager of Gabert Industrial Holdings (GIB), a German company that has business relations with Chinese companies and has recently been involved in a court case in Shanghai.

According to Gabert, at the end of 2023, GIB needed to submit five public documents and apostilles involved in a case to the Xuhui Primary People’s Court in Shanghai. Thanks to the application of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, all procedures were completed within just 15 business days. "The highly efficient judicial procedures of the Xuhui court gave GIB a tangible experience of the superior business environment of Shanghai," he said.

Judge Song Sijie from the commercial tribunal of the Xuhui court said that China officially joined the Convention in March 2023, which came into effect in the country in November of the same year. Previously, foreign public documents had to go through two sets of legalization procedures requiring consular legalization from the foreign ministry (or its authorized agency) of the country of issuance and from the embassy or consulate of the receiving country in the country of issuance. With the Convention now in place, this legalization process has been streamlined into a one-step procedure with apostilles as attachment. This improvement significantly cuts down on the time and costs involved in the cross-border use of public documents.

As Germany is also a signing member of the Convention, the court was able to apply its terms in the GIB case. Following the Convention’s guidelines, the court thoroughly reviewed the five public documents. Compared to a similar previous corporate resolution dispute that took 2-3 months to gather overseas evidence, the new system has greatly shortened the adjudication durations.

Reflecting on nearly 20 years of doing business in China since his arrival in 2005, Boehm expressed admiration for China’s ongoing efforts to align with international standards. “I can feel the courage and determination of China, and Shanghai in particular, to integrate into and synchronize with the rest of the world, both from the experience of my friend Gabert’s company and from my own in work as well as in my private life,” he said. 

“I hope more foreign companies can come to Shanghai to enjoy this sound business environment and create an even brighter future.”