China is making regulations on using foreign capital in the profitable telecom sector, which should lead to unprecedented development in the next five years, a senior telecom official said here Monday.
Zhang Chunlin, senior official with the Ministry of Information Industry, told a seminar that the future for Sino-foreign cooperation in China's telecom sector looks bright.
With China set to enter the World Trade Organization, the country will permit more participation of foreign companies in the telecom industry, he said.
Zhang added that currently Chinese and foreign telecom service providers can expand cooperation to reduce cost, promote business volume, improve service standards and quality of personnel.
The Chinese government will issue more preferential policies to encourage more Sino-foreign cooperative telecom programs in the nation's western region.
Statistics show that China's telecom sector has so far used US$10 billion worth of foreign loans, and Chinese telecom companies raised US$20 billion in funding through issuing shares on foreign stock exchanges.
(Xinhua News Agency 09/10/2001)
