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West China Improves Legal System for Greater Development
Governments in west China provinces, autonomous regions and municipality are working to improve the legal system in the area, hoping to facilitate healthy development there and encourage investment from home and abroad.
A batch of existing rules and regulations that are out of sync with development of the market economy have been annulled by the governments in the west.
This is a joint move made by the governments of 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipality in western China, including Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Chongqing and Tibet.
At a recent national conference, Chinese law experts said that only a sound legal environment can help establish a democratic and scientific decision-making system, prevent construction of redundant projects, and improve the ecological environment in western areas.
Chinese law experts are now researching ways to ensure a legal guarantee for the sustainable development strategy in west China, whose area and population accounts for 57 percent and 23 percent of the country's total respectively.
Professor Cheng Liaoyuan, a member of the research team, said that the plan is to integrate the rule of law with sustainable development and the strategy of developing west China.
The government of Chongqing Municipality announced the annulment of over 200 local rules and regulations in early June. The People's Congress of Chongqing Municipality is also reviewing more than 100 rules and regulations formulated since 1997 when it became a municipality enjoying provincial status in the country. The outdated rules and regulations and those which do not tally with the strategy of developing west China should be rescinded or revised, an official from the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress said.
Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, as well as Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou, and Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, have also abolished some regulations and rules or made revisions of others.
These are the practical measures taken by the local governments as they attempt to improve the legal system in the west while upgrading their infrastructure facilities, law expert Yin Wanbang said.
The provinces, autonomous regions and municipality in western China will also strengthen law making and law enforcement while perfecting the legal system.
The Municipal People's Congress of Chongqing will work out a series of rules and regulations on improving the investment environment this year to ensure the interests of investors, including an ordinance on encouraging foreign investment and regulations on management of the Chongqing Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The Chinese government has always encouraged the formation of a sound legal system in the process of the country's economic and social development.
Some foreign businesspeople also said that they are afraid of doing business in the traditional Chinese style of depending on high-powered connections, or "guanxi," because this will increase their investment cost.
A good investment environment based on transparent rules and regulations will be more favorable for fair competition, they said. However, law experts said that the development of the west should not mimic the old groping ways that took place in the east during the early stage of the country's reform and opening up drive.
The anticipated upsurge of the western area against the backdrop of China's expected WTO entry and a maturing market economy needs the guarantee of a legal system, experts said. "The country's 22-year-old reform has basically established the rules of the game for China's social and economic development," said Prof. Zhuo Zeyuan at the Southwest China University of Political Science and Law.
The starting point for the development of the west should be high, Zhuo added. The area's development scheme and implementation measures must conform to those of the World Trade Organization and should leave more room for further development.
He stressed that the development of the west should be in step with the construction of the legal system.
Chinese law experts are now researching a legal security system and will offer suggestions for the strategic development of the west.
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