The preparatory stage includes establishing joint ventures, splitting its business arms into independent units, introducing foreign investment and linking staff's incomes to their performance, said Gao Xiaosu, general manager of the China International Economic Consultants Co.

As the consulting arm of the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, the company now covers a wide range of business lines including accounting services, law consulting, strategic and management consulting, intellectual property rights and patent and construction supervising services.

Gao said on Tuesday that the company aims to become a world-class consulting firm that could run parallel to the world's largest consulting rivals within the next two decades.

The company also expanded its local network rapidly across the country, especially in the much developed coastal areas, to better penetrate local customers.

The company inked contracts with two firms in Nanjing on Tuesday to form a joint venture with its local branch in East China's Jiangsu Province, which targets local private and State-owned enterprises.

The move follows early similar moves in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Gao said the company is to launch more local firms in the coming years as part of its campaign to boost business.

Most of the company's business clients are multinationals, including companies like Siemens and Allianz.

"But our business is not constrained to this," said Yao Jinrong, company chairman.

Yao said the situation has changed much since the mid-1990s when China's domestic enterprises decided to expand business abroad.

The company has reshaped its focal point to provide services to domestic enterprises since many of them, including home-appliance maker Haier, desired to find business opportunities in the overseas market, according to Yao.

"Co-operation with foreign partners would provide us with expertise and business opportunities," Yao said.

Prior to the move, the company's accounting arm had already teamed with PricewaterhouseCoopers, a US accounting company.

And the company's law arm had been split to become an individual independent law firm.

The company also established a joint venture with Japan-based Nomura Securities Co in 1993 to provide consulting services to Japanese companies doing business in China.

(China Daily November 1, 2001)