Deputies Call for Opening Telecom Business to Private Firms

NPC Deputies Wei Wenlin, Prof. With Tsinghua University, Li Yining, noted Prof. Of Peking University, and others, submitted a proposal to the current NPC session, calling for opening all telecom business, including basic telecom business, first to Chinese privately-run enterprises before China's entry into the WTO, thereby speeding up the reform and development of China's telecommunication industry and meeting the fierce international competition after China's accession to WTO.

In the opinions of the deputies, China's current regulations, which are unfavorable to the development of telecommunication industry and the national economy as a whole, should be revised to allow private enterprises to participate in said industry in a wider range. They suggested that two principles and policies should be specified in the "Law of Telecom" in the drawing board and the "Regulations on Telecommunication Management" now under the examination of the State Council, i.e. lifting the restriction on the entry of private enterprises into the telecom market, earnestly solving the problem relating to the inter-relationship and inter-connection of the telecom industry; private enterprises up to the required standard and with a definite professional foundation and experiences should be allowed priority entry into the telecom business on a trial basis.

It is reported that China's telecommunication has developed rapidly in the last decade, and the telecom system has experienced profound changes: infrastructures of telecommunication have been rapidly improved and the level of telephone popularization raised. The income of telecommunication business went up to 243.3 billion yuan in 1999, 3 percent of the GDP. The number of Internet users surged from 670,000 in 1997 to 8.9 million in 1999. Sales volume of electronic information products reached 430 billion yuan last year.

However, according to the current regulations, Chinese private enterprises are generally prohibited from getting into the telecomm business.

The deputies gave in their proposals the following reasons:

��It is clearly stated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China that the non-public economy, including private enterprises, is an important component part of the socialist market economy. Under the circumstance wherein State-owned enterprises have controlled the basic networks of telecommunication, previously formulated stipulations that prohibited private enterprises from entering the telecom industry is not in keeping with the above-mentioned spirit.

��Private enterprises' participation in the telecom will not affect State security because the key to guaranteeing State security in the telecom field lies in the perfection of related laws and regulations and the government's supervision exercised according to the law.

��Opening telecommunication business first to the domestic private enterprises will help China meet the fiercer competition after its accession to the WTO.

��The outstanding performances of Chinese private enterprises staged since the 90s have demonstrated that they are an important new force of the telecom industry and have the ability to play a still greater role in this sector.

��Chinese telecom industry is able to absorb more enterprises, allowing the entry of private enterprises will facilitate the sustained growth of the telecom as well as the computer industries and even the entire national economy in the aspects of investment and demand.

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��Private enterprises' participation will help speed up the reform and transformation of mechanism of China's telecom industry and will facilitate a faster development of telecom industry and other key State-owned enterprises.

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