China's Old Industrial Base Encourages Overseas InvestmentLiaoning, an old industrial province in northeast China, is encouraging more State-owned enterprises and private businesses to invest overseas.Officials with the provincial office of foreign trade and economic cooperation said the province has carried out a series of policies in the past few years to invest and set up joint ventures overseas. A TV company in Dalian expanded its business in South America by cooperating with Argentina on a TV set processing project, exporting 200,000 sets of TV parts every year. Its exports value last year reached 348 million US dollars, over 50 percent rise against 1999. Besides furthering its business expansion in Africa, Russia and other neighboring countries, the province also set up enterprises dealing in industry, construction, real estate and resources exploitation in over 50 countries and regions. The province also encouraged local companies to invest in high-technology industries overseas. Local officials said this year the province set its focus on several industries for overseas investment, including light household electrical appliances, and bicycles, machinery, building materials, textile, fishery, chemistry, medicine and metallurgy. According to its scheme, the province will set up another 100 enterprises within the next five years, with the investment estimated at 200 million U.S. dollars, and will develop a group of multinationals from some 20 State-owned enterprises and 10 public economic complexes. Statistics last year show that it had set up 297 joint ventures overseas by the end of last year, with the investment totaling 133 million U.S. dollars. |
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