Economists last night urged the government to unveil policies to
encourage private and foreign investors to get involved in the
disposal of state-owned non-performing assets.
"The situation now in China is quite different from 20 years ago,
and a considerable section of Chinese people have the ability to
invest money in different ways,'' said Gao Shangquan, a renowned
economist and chairman of China Society For Research on Economic
System Reform.
"They should be new and potential buyers and owners of the
assets,'' Gao said.
Foreign investors should be allowed to enter the investing field
and buy equities and creditor's rights in accordance with
international practices, Gao told a two-day workshop which opened
Wednesday in Beijing on the disposal of state-owned non-performing
assets.
"Therefore, it is urgent to speed up law-making in this endeavor
while the state accelerates the pace of opening-up to the world
community,'' Gao said.
"We should try our best to devise strategies to deal with
non-performing assets because they can reduce financial risks and
stimulate state-owned enterprises.''
Among approximately 200 experts, economists and officials of the
workshop are high-level heads of China's top-four asset management
companies.
They attended the meeting to attract would-be owners of huge assets
acquired from the state-owned commercial banks.
"I'd like to point out here that some companies do have
non-performing assets but this doesn't necessarily mean the company
is unprofitable,'' said Tian Guoli, deputy chief executive of China
Cinda Asset Management Corporation.
According to the law of commercial banks, if the loans are overdue
by more than six months, they will be classified as non-performing
assets.
"In some cases, the debtors are just in financial difficulty but
they are promising,'' Tian said.
Together with the other three chief executives, Tian urged more
active investment at home and abroad to the sector.
"The bad assets are not rubbish waiting for disposal and gold is
hidden among them,'' Tian said.
Statistics show that since the four management corporations were
opened two years ago, they have acquired non-performing assets of
1.4 trillion yuan (US$168 billion), which were once owed to
commercial banks by State-owned enterprises. They have disposed of
130 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion) of non-performing assets.
(China Daily
09/20/2001)