Tech Park to Try out Stocks

Beijing Economic and Technology Development Zone (BETDZ), one of the country's pioneering State-level science and technology parks, is expected to soon make its way onto the stock market.

Ventures located in the area are pooling their resources to form a new company, that would go public to raise capital.

Sources from the zone's administrative committee said last week the BETDZ Investment & Exploitation Co Ltd, initiated by Beijing Economic and Technology Investment & Exploitation Corporation and four other high-tech enterprises in BETDZ, will join hands to form the listed entity.

The Beijing corporation, a State-owned enterprise with registered capital totalling 270 million yuan (US$32.53 million) and gross assets valued at 3.7 billion yuan (US$445 million), would hold 74 per cent of the new company's shares.

The major business of the new listed company would be infrastructure construction, real estate development and high-tech industry investment.

According to official statistics, by the end of August, the gross assets of the pooled companies reached 280 million yuan (US$33.73 million), while the January-August profits hit 113 million yuan (US$13.61 million) and contributed 25 million yuan (US$3.01 million) in taxes to the State's coffers.

China Galaxy Securities Co Ltd is to be responsible for the preparation needed for listing, involving packaging, disclosure, road shows and issuance, said Sun Jiaqi, director of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Beijing Office.

A detailed timetable and exact exchange market for the listing has not been decided yet as a series of examining and approving procedures are still under way.

Li Fengling, director with the administrative committee of the zone told China Daily that the public listing would help the zone increase its competitiveness and tap a variety of channels for capital in order to face challenges and opportunities brought about by China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"After China's entry into the WTO a great deal of preferential policies, which have been the zone's fundamental advantage on capital introduction since it was set up in 1994, should be eliminated in accordance with the WTO requirements," Li said.

The director acknowledged that to deal with such conditions, BETDZ has to alter its business strategy to find a way to compete with its counterparts from home and abroad in a fair and equal arena.

"We have played an active role based on the administrative platform for over five years, and aiming at further development, we will create a market-oriented platform for the investors," Li said.

Li Boxi, a researcher with the Development Research Centre of the State Council, noted the breakdown of privileges for China's economic and technology development zones after the country's entry to the WTO has begun to compel them to shake off their dependence on the State protective policies and try to run as capital management institutes as well as real estate developers to obtain sustainable and healthy development.

"In recent years, various preferential policies offered by the different economic and technology development zones around the nation have brought to these zones predatory competitive advantages, but firms will become short-sighted if they stick to their usual business strategy without adapting to the WTO environment because such behaviour is contrary to the international market practices," Li said.

Along with financing from the market, BETDZ is sparing no effort to attract more overseas and domestic capital through streamlining administrative procedures, upgrading infrastructure conditions, improving the investment environment and providing efficient and convenient services.

The zone's statistics indicated that, during the first three-quarters of this year, the zone's general domestic product reached 1.88 billion yuan (US$226.5 million), up 70 per cent from the same period of last year, meanwhile export volume recorded US$83.83 million, up 109 per cent over 1999.

Moreover, 15 foreign-funded high-tech enterprises, especially the electronic information and optical-mechanical-electrical integration companies, have become the zone's dragon head as their general industrial output value, sales revenue and net profit occupies 53 per cent, 52 per cent and 71 per cent of the zone's total during the first nine months of this year.

By the end of last month, 739 enterprises with a total investment of US$2.6 billion, had been launched in BETDZ, of which 209 are overseas-funded companies, involving multinational enterprises, single foreign-funded companies and joint ventures.

Furthermore, 22 of the world's top 500 companies have chosen the site for business expansion.

The Finnish mobile-phone giant Nokia has invested US$1.2 billion in setting up its Xingwang (International) Science and Technology park, the biggest of its kind in China.

Japan-based SMC (China) Co Ltd pooled capital here six times consecutively, totalling US$100 million in the zone, signaling investor confidence in the zone.



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