Dezan Shira Partners Plan New Asian & Silk Road Development Strategy

Dezan Shira & Associates Partners planning new adventures. From left to right: Alberto Vettoretti, Sabrina Zhang, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, Rohit Kapur, Adam Livermore.

The Dezan Shira & Associates equity partners have been holding their annual partners’ meetings in Sri Lanka these past few days, focusing on their planning, strategy, and budgeting sessions for the year ahead. The firm is one of the largest consulting practices in Asia, providing legal, tax, and related advice to foreign SMEs and MNCs investing in China, India, and Southeast Asia. With the Dezan Shira Asian Alliance, the practice includes some 28 offices across 10 countries and about 600 staff.

The practice was founded in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China in 1992, and was one of the earliest professional services firms in the China market. In China, its offices now include offices in Beijing, Dalian, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, and Zhongshan. The practice has also been operating in India since 2005, Vietnam since 2006, and Singapore since 2007, with additional full service alliance offices in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The firm is unique both due to its size, private ownership, and the fact that it is one of the few remaining professional services firms to have retained its independence, and remains self-financed and managed. Next year is the 25th anniversary of the practice.

“We have enjoyed a productive and profitable 2016 under difficult trading conditions” comments Chris Devonshire-Ellis, the Founding Partner and Chairman, “and we have an aggressive 2017 plan to develop our business interests in India and the China-India and China-ASEAN trade corridors in particular. We are also branching out into the Silk Road arena and will be launching Silk Road Briefing as an investment intelligence platform dealing with China’s ODI into the One Belt One Road project at the end of Q1 next year, as well as boosting our marketing presence in the United States and EU during 2017. We continue to expand further into Asia including Central Asia, and are one of the very few firms who have the capability to offer pan-Asian, multi-jurisdictional services.”

Dezan Shira is also well known for its wholly owned publishing and regional intelligence division, Asia Briefing, which includes China Briefing, as well as similar platforms for ASEAN, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Vietnam.

“We continue to enjoy running and developing the practice” says Devonshire-Ellis “and are looking forward to our 25th anniversary next year and further adventures to come.”