The BBC Monitoring Service this week reproduced a report by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) of a speech given by Wu Yi, state councillor and former trade minister, while visiting Tokyo.
The speech welcomes Japanese investment in China's hinterland. Wu said China will better protect the interests and legal rights of foreign investors, and will offer a preferential tax policy to encourage foreign investment in the western regions. Wu said China is also considering using foreign capital for issuing stocks, and build-operate-transfer [BOT] project loans.
The text of the Xinhua report reads:
Tokyo, 28th July: Visiting Chinese State Councillor Wu Yi delivered a speech here on 28th July. She pointed out in the speech: The measures adopted by the Chinese government, such as practising a proactive fiscal policy and a steady monetary policy, boosting domestic demand and encouraging export, are highly effective. China's economy has already shaken off the impact of the Asian financial crisis and embarked on a track of sound development.
The lecture, as a scheduled activity of Wu Yi during her visit, was co-sponsored by the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization, the Japan-China Economic Association, the Japan External Trade Organization, the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade and the Japan-China Economic and Trade Centre. Some 400 people from Japan's economic and business circles attended the lecture.
On China's strategic concept of large-scale development of its western region, Wu Yi said: The large-scale development of the western region is an important policy decision made by the Chinese government for the 21st century. China's western region, vast in area and rich in natural resources, has great market potentials and broad development prospects. The Chinese government has formulated a series of preferential policies and is making some more such policies and will spend most of its central government construction fund, bank loans for state policy consideration, and foreign preferential loans on the development of the western region. At the same time, it will further increase its infrastructure investment; encourage foreign investors to make investment in such fields as agriculture, water resources, ecology, communications, energy source, urban infrastructure, environmental protection, mineral products, tourism, and development of resources; and open the service trade field wider to the outside world. China is also considering widening the channel of using foreign capital by such means as issuance of stock, loans for specific projects, and build-operate-transfer [BOT] projects, and encourage foreign firms in China to make reinvestment in the western region. In addition, it will also formulate a preferential taxation policy. The large-scale development of China's western region will create a large number of business opportunities for foreign enterprises.
Wu Yi pointed out: In the two decades or so since China's start of reform and opening up, foreign investment in China has constantly grown. As of the end of this year, China has successively approved the establishment of an accumulated total of more than 350,000 foreign-funded enterprises, with the relevant contracts involving foreign investment amounting to more than 630bn dollars; and the foreign capital actually utilized over these years has exceeded 320bn dollars. The Chinese government will further improve the investment environment, create better operational conditions for foreign firms, improve the administration of foreign-funded enterprises and offer better service to them, perfect legislation, and protect the legitimate rights and interest of investors and foreign-funded enterprises.
Wu Yi said: In the new century, China's opening up will enter a new stage - that is, a change from an opening up of limited scale and fields to an all-round opening up, from an experimental opening up in selected parts of the country under state policies to a foreseeable opening up within a legal framework, and from a one-way opening up of our country to a two-way mutual opening up between China and WTO members. After China joins the WTO, the markets of the WTO members will be open wider to China's enterprises.
She said: In accordance with the WTO rules and requirements, the Chinese government is re-examining and revising its existing foreign-related laws and regulations according to legal procedures, so as to establish an economic and trade system that conforms to both international practice and China's national conditions. China will participate in the process of economic globalization in a more comprehensive area and in a more active attitude.
On China-Japan economic relations and trade, Wu Yi said: For a long time, with unremitting efforts made by the governments, non-governmental organizations and many farsighted entrepreneurs of both countries, the China-Japan economic relations and trade have been all along growing smoothly, and a bilateral economic and trade relationship of mutual benefit, mutual complementing, diversity, closeness, and steady development has begun to take shape.
Wu Yi pointed out: The China-Japan economic exchanges and trade are important to the foreign relations of both countries. Japan has been China's biggest trading partner for seven consecutive years, while China has been Japan's second biggest trading partner. To further strengthen the bilateral cooperation in the economic, trade and investment fields between the two countries and work together to build the relations of economic cooperation and trade in the 21st century is an important part of the efforts to develop China-Japan friendly and cooperative relations under the new historical conditions. This not only conforms to the fundamental interest of the Chinese people and the Japanese people but also helps peace and development in the Asian-Pacific Region and in the world as a whole. The Chinese government welcomes entrepreneurs from all countries, including Japan, to come to invest in China; and it is actively promoting exchanges and cooperation between Chinese enterprises and foreign enterprises.
Present at the lecture were Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng, Chinese ambassador to Japan Chen Jian, Vice-Minister of the State Planning Commission Li Zibin, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Wang Wanbin, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Customs Zhao Guanghua, Vice-Governor of Shaanxi Province Zhao Dequan, Vice-Governor of Gansu Province Cui Zhenghua, and Assistant Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Ma Xiuhong.
Source: Xinhua news agency domestic service, Beijing, in Chinese 0946 gmt 28 Jul 00
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