Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Planning Commission, today said, "We will further improve the investment environment and experiment with more ways and areas of investment for utilizing foreign capital.

The minister said that restrictions on foreign investment in terms of investment fields, geographic regions, technology transfers, required local content, foreign exchange equilibrium and maximum proportion of foreign capital will be relaxed. In his report on the implementation of the 1999 plan and the Draft 2000 Plan for National Economic and Social Development at current session of the 9th NPC, Zeng said, "We will open to the outside world banking, insurance, telecommunications, tourism and other service trades on a step-by-step basis." Regulations concerning the management of BOT projects with foreign investment and infrastructure transfer projects should be formulated and implemented as soon as possible. And efforts will be stepped up to attract investment from multinational corporations, he said.

Meanwhile, vigorous efforts will be made to attract foreign investment in a variety of forms for the reorganization and technological upgrading of state-owned enterprises, he said. The minister further noted that "we will attract foreign investment to fields encouraged by the government, such as high technology and environmental protection, as well as to the central and western regions. We need to improve the management of foreign- funded enterprises, provide better service to them and protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors." Moreover, "We will strengthen overall management of our foreign debt. The information system for foreign debt should be improved, and early warning and monitoring should be strengthened," he said, adding that a monitoring system for local foreign debt will be set up gradually.

"We should prepare ourselves well and effectively for China's entry into the World Trade Organization," Zeng said.