China Going Green on Foreign Investment?
China has released new rules on foreign investment that seek to promote renewable energy and clean technologies - but raise the bar for foreign firms hoping to enter polluting or energy hungry sectors.
Posted to the Ministry of Commerce's website on 27 November, the new Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries is set to take effect from 1 December - updating rules in place since 2004.
The new guidelines mark a shift of emphasis away from encouraging foreign investment to boost the country's exports. The move comes amid concerns over China's surging foreign trade surplus, which grew by 59% to US$212.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2007.
For the petrochemical industries, the most notable change is that foreign investment in high energy- and raw material consuming products - such as ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, aluminium fluoride and hydrofluoric acid production - will now be restricted.
Meanwhile, engineering plastics, for example, and environmentally friendly fertilizers or pesticides will join a list of 'encouraged' sectors that will enjoy faster approval and, in many cases, preferential tax treatment. Coal chemical manufacturing too is on the list of approved industries.
Read full article at RSC - Advancing the Chemical Sciences
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