China is to establish a system to publicize the credit information of export businesses on the Internet so government bodies can better manage foreign trade.

The Ministry of Commerce yesterday said on its website that it will establish a foreign trade credit system in more than 10 provinces and municipalities including Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu. Through the system, the government will put the credit history and operational information of companies doing business overseas on the Internet.

Government supervision bodies and foreign companies will be able to retrieve the information through a website, the commerce ministry said on its website yesterday. This is part of the government's effort to build a system to make the credit information of all enterprises transparent.

The government first ran a trial credit system in Shenzhen three years ago. The city government has since put the information of nearly 10,000 enterprises on a website. Business partners can check the credit, tax and legal records of any of these companies online.

This is a good move for China's foreign trade, said Wang Shengli, a credit administrator under the Ministry of Commerce. "Chinese enterprises need good credit to win in global trade, and this is also good for their trade partners in other countries," Wang said.

Many Chinese companies do not fully understand the significance of credit and they do not pay enough attention to credit management within their companies, according to Han Jiaping, a credit management expert.

Paying more attention to credit will help Chinese enterprises' trade partners and is also good for domestic companies themselves because it helps them avoid risk, he said. But there is currently a lack of credit management personnel in China, Han said.

The credit system is part of the commerce ministry's effort to build a broader information system in the business field, Wang said.

The system will include information on companies doing business within China, as well as investment and other information. The Ministry of Commerce is to share with other government bodies, including Customs and tax, to supervise enterprises together. "This will make it more convenient for those who obey the regulation, while those who do not will get punishment," Wang said.

Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng said earlier that through a ministry blacklist system the government has punished over 400 export enterprises that have broken rules or behaved illegally.

(China Daily December 18, 2007)