CHINA is to open up one of the last vestiges of state control, its national railways, to foreign investment and management to help modernise the decrepit transport system.
A Ministry of Railways official was quoted by China Daily yesterday as saying that new rules were being drawn up to allow foreign investors to set up joint ventures to run certain railways.
The move suggests that approved Sino-foreign joint ventures will have some flexibility in setting the fares for railways in which they are permitted to take an equity interest.
Artificially depressed fares have long been a bugbear of the industry, leading to excessive demand, low revenue and, ultimately, a run-down and overburdened railway network.
An Shunyi, deputy head of the ministry's foreign capital and technical import office, told the newspaper the joint ventures would also be allowed to develop rail-side land to help them recoup the huge investments needed.
''This will be a stimulus to foreign firms, which are still hesitant to invest in railways with huge input and lengthy construction periods,'' he said.
Without naming the routes, he said that those operating in China's prosperous coastal region, where rail capacity was most stretched, would start the experiment with foreign investment.