Exploration Rights in the PRC: The How To and Where To Guide
China's mining industry hasn't experienced the dramatic growth in foreign investment that many other sectors of the economy have during the reform period. How can foreign investors tap in to the sector, and is the government committed to revamping the exploration industry?
Date:
May 2003
Keywords (click to search): [mining] [mining exploration] [natural resources] [mining industry] [mining sector] [coal] [minerals] [oil] [foreign investment]
By Marcia Ward and Campbell Izzard, Allens Arthur Robinson, Shanghai
For years the Ministry of Land and Resources (MOLAR) has promised to reform the approval process and the costs associated with securing exploration rights in the PRC, and in so doing to encourage foreign investment in an industry yet to experience the transformation wrought in other sectors of China's economy. In a classic case of one step forward and two steps sideways, the laws and notices issued in 1998 and 20001 that aimed at clarifying the exploration application process, the transfer and assignment of exploration rights and encouragement of investment in exploration, do not seem to have convinced foreign investors that things are any easier. According to recent public data, foreign direct investment (FDI) in exploration and mining accounts for just 1.75% of total FDI in China.2
Here our aim is to guide potential investors through the...
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