A new local regulation on commercial fisheries has been adopted in Zhejiang allowing residents of the eastern coastal province to invest in the construction and management of fishing ports.
Private individuals were previously forbidden from running such facilities in the province.
Zhejiang is one of China's major fisheries and is home to as many as 40,000 fishing ships and boats. Fishing ports were heretofore the exclusive domain of governments, and, as a result, there was not enough capital to build a sufficient number of ports.
The new regulation provides for the entry of private capital, and investors will have the right to use and manage the ports.
The regulation does not specify whether investors have ownership of the ports, however, in China, all land is state-owned. Investors must therefore seek permission from the government to build a port on a piece of land.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2003)
