"Vendors are like flies holding pirated CDs and VCDs, computer shops look like vegetable stalls with fake fittings and constant traffic jams, who could believe such a scene occurs in the Chinese Silicon Valley every day?" Zheng Guoxiang said on her way to work at Stone Group, a company in Beijing's Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park.
A complete and strict law to eliminate such problems will greatly contribute to restoring the park's reputation, standardizing enterprises' operation and further improving the investment environment, Zheng said.
Now the long-awaited regulations on the tech park are expected to be issued by the end of this year after gaining approval from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).
Sources from the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress said the provisions of the draft regulations concern combination of manufacturers, universities and research institutes, market competition order, venture capital, talent introduction, intellectual rights protection and government behavior standardization.
"The regulations should be regarded as a comprehensive law for the park, instead of a single technological, economic or administrative law," said Wang Jiayan, director of the Law Office under the Beijing municipal government.
Wang said the law answers calls from experts and insiders for solutions to problems including poor services of the governmental departments, outdated talent introduction mechanisms, poor infrastructure and an immature market system.
According to an expert from the drafting group of the law, the new regulations make several breakthroughs in which the former law formulated by the municipal government falls short. For example, its protection provisions highlight the defence of legal property of high-tech enterprises and skilled workers and the restriction on administrative interference by governmental departments.
Under the new law, there is no registered permanent residence limitation for professional talents. Restrictions on proportion of scientific achievements as capital and shares in high-tech enterprises were lifted.
Li Yue, a financial expert at Peking University, said exploitation and construction of any area should be supported by the legal system, culture construction and strategic management, while "maintaining credit between enterprises or enterprises and individuals on a legal basis" should be the prerequisite for fair competition.
(China Daily 11/26/2000)
