Revised bankruptcy law closer to reality

THE draft of China's new bankruptcy law is to go to the standing committee of the National People's Congress for a final decision before the end of this year.

Details of the new bankruptcy law are to be officially made public for the first time today in speeches to be given by two members of the drafting group of the Law on Bankruptcy at the Insol Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Insol is an international insolvency association.

The revision of the law, based on the old bankruptcy law passed in December, 1986, was kicked off in March, 1994, by the financial and economic committee of the National People's Congress.

There has been much debate since then on revising the bankruptcy law, particularly as applied to state enterprises, and the draft is expected to touch on the sensitive issue of ownership of state assets.

Wang Wenyue was expected to say in his speech to the Insol conference today that the law would likely apply to enterprises' legal persons, enterprises without legal person status, and natural persons who assume joint liquidation responsibility for enterprises without legal person status.

In so saying, Mr Wang would clear away doubts that the new law would cover enterprise legal persons only. The old law issued in 1986 only covered the bankruptcy of state enterprises.