PROBLEMS with managing joint ventures on the mainland are big but not insurmountable according to a management consultant, Mr K. K. Yeung, who has recently completed a study of the situation.
There are two types of joint venture. The first is an equity joint venture where the non-mainland party is responsible for the injection of capital into the company.
Because of this and the commercial contract, which governs the relationship between the two there is, in Mr Yeung's words, ''not much freedom of management''.
A better idea is a corporative joint venture, which is without a commercial contract and is favoured by a majority of Hongkong businesses.
Equity joint ventures are more the device of long-term companies and multinationals.
The looser structure of corporative joint ventures is more in tune with the contracting nature of the industries that Hongkong business people are involved with in China.