New Investment Catalogue Expected to Liberalize Infrastructure Investment

China's accession to the World Trade Organization is expected to have significant and far-reaching impact upon China's domestic economy and related legal framework. This includes the area of basic infrastructure, of which we've covered many issues in the past year on this page.

Foreign investment in basic infrastructure, like other types of direct foreign investment in the PRC, is governed by and subject to the overall legal framework set out in the Directing of Foreign Investment, Tentative Provisions (the Investment Provisions) and the Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue (the Investment Catalogue). This will not change with China's entry into WTO. The State Council first issued the Investment Provisions in 1995, and the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) are jointly responsible for their implementation.