Chinese Legislators Put Venture Capital Law On The Agenda

BEIJING, August 9 (Xinhua) -- China may be able to promulgate a venture capital law in at least two years, Beijing's China Securities reports today.

Cheng Siwei, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress ( NPC) Standing Committee, was quoted as saying recently in Beijing that a team of experts has already started drafting one, but it is expected to take a relatively-long period of time. Authorities are working on a regulations on industrial investment funds that could provide fiscal and tax preferential policies to venture capital.

Further support is expected to be given to venture capital in an amendment to the Scientific and Technological Progress Law and the New Technological Development Zone Law.

Cheng has called for a cooling-down period for the discussion of venture capital, saying that China first needs to study the experiences of other countries carefully and then to balance them against the reality of Chinese society.

He said that for now China does not have the essential conditions to establish another stock market because it would have even greater requirements for information disclosures, market interaction, and regulations than what China could come up with today.

And China needs to be active in promoting the development of a second stock market in Hong Kong, Cheng noted.