Beijing lifts veil on joint ventures to boost investment

THE mainland's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (Moftec) is for the first time is releasing details of 130,000 officially registered Sino-foreign joint ventures in a bid to boost investment.

The information, previously regarded as highly classified, is being released on CD-Rom and is for sale at a starting price of US$800.

Fears that foreign direct investment (FDI) is slipping rapidly and that the regional economic downturn is making foreign companies reluctant to expand into the mainland is thought to have prompted Beijing to look for ways to raise the country's profile as an investment destination.

Figures released last week revealed that foreign direct investment had fallen 9.5 per cent in January and February from a year earlier.

The CD-Rom will give not only the names of businesses involved in mainland joint ventures, but previously confidential information on the value of investments, the numbers of staff employed in each venture, and the names and addresses of key contacts in each business.

It will reveal how long each joint venture has had a licence to operate, and how much longer the licence has to run.

'China has huge potential for scientific, technological and economic development,' Moftec Minister Shi Guangsheng said at the launch of the product. 'We are willing to join friends from business and financial communities all over the world.' It is intended that the CD-Rom will be updated every six months until all the estimated 300,000 officially registered joint ventures are included.