The
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC)
lately issued a circular, making a new regulation on granting
private enterprises import and export autonomy.
The regulation says that China will abolish the original
examination and approval system on the qualification for handling
import and export business, and in its place will introduce a
system of registration and ratification. This change means
completely lifting restriction on the accession of private
enterprises into the economic and foreign trade field.
The circular regulates that private enterprises each with
registered capital not less than 5 million yuan (not less than 3
million yuan in central and western regions) can apply for the
right to handle foreign trade business. Enterprises with registered
capital not less than 3 million yuan (not less than 2 million yuan
in central and western and ethnic minority regions), research
institutes, high-tech firms and electromechanical enterprises not
less than 1 million yuan) can apply for import and export right.
Related departments shall decide whether or not to allow
registration within 10 work days after receipt of the
application
Prior to this, on January 1, 1999 and January 1, 2000, MOFTEC had
twice relaxed controls on approving import and export rights, some
1,000 enterprises had been granted rights to do import and export
business. The change made this time as mentioned above is actually
tantamount to lifting the restriction on the accession of private
enterprises into the economic and foreign trade field.
MOFTEC made the decision at a time when China's export volume
witnessed a sharp drop of 26 percentage points in the first half of
this year compared with the same period last year.
( 08/02/2001)