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China Encourages Foreign Investment in Gas Projects
China encourages foreign investment in a mammoth pipeline to pump natural gas from the west to the east and other gas projects, according to "Beijing Review".
Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the State Development Planning Commission, was quoted as saying recently that the new policy fully reflects Chinese government's determination to open wider to the outside and smooth its entry into the World Trade Organization.
He said that the state will not approve solely state-owned investment in the pipeline project, which is estimated to cost 40 billion yuan.
There is no ceiling set for the share-holding percentage of foreign-controlled investment in order to make foreign funds possible for the project, he said.
The West-East Natural Gas Pipeline Project is the most ambitious effort ever undertaken by the central government to develop China's west.
In addition to incentives given to infrastructure construction, the pipeline project also enjoys favorable policies specially designed for the development of the western areas, including fee reductions and exemptions in mineral exploration and mining, tax- free imports of related equipment and land use.
Natural Gas deposits in the Tarim Basin of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are estimated at 8.39 trillion cubic meters.
Construction of the pipeline is scheduled to start next year and be completed in 2003.
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