The new edition will also reflect rulings that reduce the proportion of shares Chinese are required to hold in a joint business to bring China into compliance with WTO rules, according to Min Liping, who is in charge of foreign investment at the foreign trade ministry.

The government is encouraging more foreign investment in high-tech and export-oriented enterprises, Ms Min said.

China released its first investment guidebook showing which industries on the mainland were open to foreigners, in June 1995.

An update came in late 1997, with a widening in the scope of business open to foreign investment. That edition also carried an endorsement of foreign investors making "a fortune'' in the western part of the country in response to the government's developmental push.

China still has a lot to do to get ready for WTO, especially in structural reforms and conceptual advances, Ms Min said. One important task is the need for efficient government Web sites to provide information on government policies, investment opportunities, laws and regulations and other items important to foreign investors, she added.

China approved more than 14,000 foreign-funded enterprises in the first seven months of this year, an 18.22-percent increase year-on-year. That brought the total number to 378,403 by the end of July.

This also brought US$40.29 billion-worth of contractual foreign investment for the period, a 46-percent increase year-on-year, bringing the total amount to US$717 billion by late July.

(China Daily 08/29/2001)