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China Urged to Nip Counterfeiting
China is urged to firmly crack down on counterfeiting of brand products in order to protect investment sentiment of the corporate sector.
The Development Research Center (DRC) under the State Council said in a report released here today that total value of counterfeiting goods was estimated at more than 130 billion yuan ( 16 billion US dollars) in the country in 1998.
The report was compiled on the basis of a nation-wide survey that DRC conducted on 146 Chinese and foreign-funded enterprises in the country earlier this year.
At a press conference sponsored by the Quality Brands Protection Committee under the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, Zhang Xiaoji from DRC said that counterfeiting caused over 18 billion yuan worth of losses of taxation to the government.
According to the DRC report, about 80 percent of the companies surveyed say that counterfeiting has had negative effect on their re-investment. Nearly one-third of the foreign-funded enterprises surveyed say that discouraging investment is the major impact that counterfeiting has on the companies.
The report said that counterfeiting eroded 10 million yuan in average of the profits of every company surveyed every year. It pointed out that counterfeiting will exacerbate slowdown of corporate investment that has weighed down the economic growth.
According to the report, extremely high profits of counterfeiting, slack law enforcement, inadequate punishment and poor sense of law obedience have combined to complicate the fight against counterfeiting.
The report called for the Chinese government to impose much greater punishment over counterfeiting.
It also called for governments at all levels to make coordinated efforts to deal with severe infringement on brand names. It called for the government to discipline officials who tolerate, cover up or involve directly in counterfeiting activities according to administrative regulations and laws.
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