"Quite a few of our current laws and regulations concerning foreign investment are inconsistent with the WTO's rules," said Ma Yu, director of the Foreign Investment Department of the Chinese Academy of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Speaking at the National Working Conference on Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation recently in Beijing, foreign trade minister Shi Guangsheng said China will adjust and perfect its Foreign Trade Law, Sino-Foreign Jointly-Funded Enterprise Law, Sino-Foreign Co-operated Enterprise Law and Foreign-Invested Enterprise Law, according to the demands of the market economy and WTO membership.

He said existing economic laws and regulations involving foreign businesses will be rectified by the Legal System Office of the State Council.

"We will speed up making laws concerning imports and exports, foreign trade agencies, border trade, the processing trade, technology trade, origins of production, labor cooperation, overseas investment, external assistance, e-commerce, anti-dumping and anti-subsidy laws," said the minister.

Focus will be placed on rules and regulations that are inconsistent with the WTO, he stressed.

"It is understandable that these laws that were made during the 1970s or '80s did not take into consideration international regulations. There are even conflicts between them and some recently-made laws, such as the Contract Law and the Corporate Law," said Ma.

MOFTEC sources said the ministry has already started to modify foreign investment laws, but there are disputes about their modification.

"For example, should these three foreign investment laws be combined into one," a MOFTEC official told Business Weekly.

Aside from the three laws, dealing with rules and regulations regarding foreign investment may be an even tougher task for the modification team.

"To conform to the requirement of WTO rules, a lot of adjustments should be made in these rules and regulations, such as equity limits, export requirements, foreign exchange balances and restrictions on scopes-of-activity," said Ma.

"What's more, the government's project-review and decision-making processes should be more transparent," he added.

(China Daily January 29, 2000)