Open for business from Europe

"There's a cultural translation behind it. If you don't follow, you get stuck in the process. There might be incomplete documentation, failures in testing or missing references to Chinese standards. So we help them to smooth and accelerate the process, to avoid mistakes and to keep time and cost under control," says Ziegler.

Quality Partnerships' focus on China Compulsory Certification, the only national multi-sector market access system in China, has successfully secured 40 licenses and certifications for clients over the past two years.

The company is currently working on 20 cases to help companies enter sectors such as electrical home appliances, medical devices and motor parts.

Ziegler's resume includes a stint at SGS in Japan, the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification services provider.

"I always wanted to set up my own business and I came to China because I thought that's the place where things are going to happen in the next couple of years," he says, adding that working for the SESEC project has helped him to understand some fundamentals of making business in China.

After starting with just one other employee in 2009, Ziegler has grown Quality Partnerships into a company with six full-time employees, three part-time employees and three freelancers.

He says the company's revenue jumped by tenfold to 500,000 euros ($637,600) in 2011 from 50,000 euros in 2008.

Ziegler is very excited about this rapid growth and says he plans to "stay for good" in China.

"The market for companies like us is enormous," he says, adding that the EU was China's largest trading partner for eight consecutive years between 2003 and 2011, and China has been the EU's second-biggest trading partner.

Ziegler says that despite Chinese standardization systems becoming more professional and mature over the past two to three years, they are also becoming more complex.

"So my small business has the potential to turn into something serious," he says.

His Beijing representative office is now a locally registered foreign investment enterprise, in line with his ambitious expansion plan in China.

"In two to three years, I want to add testing and inspection into our business. We are now only a consulting company to help people get licenses and certification; it doesn't make sense if we want to play big in China," Ziegler says.

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn