CHINA has decided to clamp down on a perceived drain on hard currency caused by the proliferation of joint ventures, says the Financial News. Last year local governments raced each other to attract foreign investment following senior leader Deng Xiaoping's calls for a bolder opening. Much of the resulting boom consisted of shady contracts and property speculation, the Chinese press has complained. A national working meeting of the State Administration of Exchange Control yesterday called for measures to stem losses to joint ventures through tax scams, currency trading and excessive loans, and to ensure pledged investment was forthcoming, the newspaper said. It said the administration had decided to introduce a registration system and ''thorough annual examinations to fully understand the enterprise's foreign exchange operations''. While contracts worth US$58 billion in foreign investment were signed last year, more than in the previous 13 years, only 19 per cent of it was really invested, compared with 62.3 per cent in 1987, the newspaper said. It said 59 per cent of joint ventures last year applied for loans from domestic banks compared with 39 per cent in 1987. Bloomberg
