Foreign businessmen now can under certain conditions control
foreign-invested commercial enterprises (FICEs) in China, and China
will gradually remove all the restrictions on foreign share-holding
in such enterprises.
The process of removing the restrictions on foreign share-holding
will be completed within three years after China becomes a full
member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said sources from the
State Administration of Internal Trade (SAIT).
Huang Hai, an economist with the SAIT, made his remarks at the
on-going fourth China Fair for International Investment and Trade,
which opened in the east port city of Xiamen on September 8.
Huang said, all of China's municipalities, provincial capitals and
relevant cities can set up FICEs, and foreign investors are
permitted to hold shares no more than 65 percent in the FICEs
provided that they run only three or less than three chain
stores.
China has lifted the restrictions on the number and location of
foreign-invested retail sales enterprises. And China is studying
whether or not to impose restrictions on foreign investors in large
chain stores and storage shops.
China's first foreign-funded retail sales store went into operation
in Shanghai in 1995. So far, China has insisted that Chinese side
controls the major shares of such enterprises.
A
senior WTO official said that speeding up the development of
service sector in China is of great importance in creating more
jobs, absorbing surplus rural laborers, urbanization, taxation, and
in enriching the cultural life of the public, and in readjusting
the country's economic structure.
At
present, China's service sector only accounts for 39 percent of the
national economy, far falling behind the world's average of 61
percent.
Guo Geping, chairman of the China Association for Chain Store
Management, said the inflow of foreign funds into China's retail
sales and other service sectors is helpful to revitalizing the
market, and is good for the development of domestic enterprises
while benefiting foreign investors themselves.
China now has more than 300 FICEs, whose sales volume accounts for
3 percent of the nation's total.
(People’s Daily)