India card Visa Tracking: Contract disputes will hurt Chinese interests

October 12, the economic reference newspaper, "India" card "Chinese enterprises visa involving tens of billions of dollars in the contract" as the title, the Indian government has made an exclusive in-depth report on the discriminatory visa policy for Chinese engineering construction companies and limited the departure of tens of thousands of relevant Chinese personnel before October 31, and has aroused strong repercussions.　　According to the "Economic reference newspaper," the latest understanding of the situation, at present, in India and China-funded enterprises have been required to return to India, apply for a work visa.　　However, many Chinese enterprises are very worried, from the development point of view, India's practice is likely to trigger a large area of contract disputes between the two countries, and the Indian side of the performance so far, it is difficult to convince people that Indian law will guarantee China's interests.　　Officials at the Commerce office of the Chinese Embassy in India also cautioned Chinese companies to avoid such risks when signing contracts with Indian companies. Indian officials deny visa policy changes in recent years, Chinese companies and Indian companies have signed a large number of infrastructure construction contracts, totaling more than tens of billions of dollars, India has become China's largest overseas market for contract construction projects.　　These contracts generally have strict rules on the duration, now the visa issue will definitely affect the duration of the project, the delay would involve compensation. Chinese contractors and Indian owners disagree on the issue of contract compensation that cannot be implemented on schedule because Indian owners do not recognise changes in the law and Indian officials do not recognise policy change. A Chinese electric Power construction company project manager's encounter is very representative. He told the economic reference newspaper that the company was consulting with Indian owners on compensation issues. The project he is responsible for is in the contract with the Indian owner to make provisions for the compensation that the contract cannot be fulfilled due to the "change of law".　　But to the manager's frustration, Indian owners did not recognise a "legal change" and Indian officials did not recognise the change in policy. He said that the Indian embassy website clearly wrote a business visa can be used for short-term projects, India's visa practice has actually changed, so the company is still in consultation with the owners, if there is no discussion, inevitable legal disputes.　　But, under such circumstances, how much can Indian law guarantee the interests of Chinese companies? The tide of contract disputes or the difficulty of avoiding engineering personnel who are guided or have special skills as a result of forced departures are not, as the Indian government and media call it, "unskilled and unskilled labor", which is not available locally in India, and Chinese companies are unable to hire locals to complete the project,　　Therefore, whether the Chinese engineering and technical personnel will be able to get more work visas will become the key to the future contract performance. "Economic reference newspaper" reporter found in the interview, although the Indian side promised in 45 days to two months to reply to China's work visa application, but the Chinese enterprises are generally concerned about the work visa can not be issued on time, the number can not meet the needs.　　The result is that the progress of the project is prolonged and the contract disputes will be a common phenomenon. A project manager of a power construction company told reporters that due to the cumbersome application data required by the new requirements, only a portion of the staff who returned earlier had submitted a job signingCertificate application. The project, which was sent to the Indian Embassy in August for a working visa, has not received a formal reply until two months ago. A Chinese telecoms company's visa manager also said that the applications submitted in July and August have not received a reply.　　In addition, when the company received inquiries from the Indian embassy in China, the other said that the number of work visas issued by the Indian Ministry of Labour was only "1% of the number of local employees in the company" (in India). Chinese companies called for the resumption of normal business visas and Western companies to obtain a large number of 1 years and many years of travel between Indian business visa compared to the Indian side only to 3-6 months a single round-trip business visa has been discriminatory treatment, greatly increased the operating costs and difficulty of the operation.　　The printing side further shortened the stay period, which greatly affected the normal development of the business of most Chinese companies in India.　　In an interview with the economic reference newspaper, most Chinese companies said they hoped that the Indian government would also consider the reasonable business needs of Chinese enterprises and resume the normal distribution of business visas. A Chinese company manager responsible for India's visa affairs said the current rate of application for a business visa was only 1/10, and the validity period was only half a month.　　The Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India also stipulates that only three types of cases can be applied for business visas, that is, to India to open companies, senior management applications and to India procurement, corporate training and new product commissioning work can not be carried out, normal business activities are greatly affected. This is "a lack of basic business knowledge," the manager said. India's National Software Industry Association has written to India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, pointing out that the scope for allowing applications for a business visa is too narrow to include training, marketing activities and business negotiations.