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Coal industry open up to foreign investors
(BBC/Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-29 20:42
Taiyuan, 29 October: Another foreign firm has been granted cooperation with
three coal mines in north China's Shanxi Province, a provincial commerce
official has said, indicating China's substantial effort to open up its coal
industry to foreign investors.
Although the joint venture programme is yet to get official approval by the
Chinese Ministry of Commerce, foreign investors will no longer find policy
barriers to enter the country's coal industry, said Zhang Jitang, director of
the Foreign Investment Department with the Shanxi Provincial Department of
Commerce.
"China has eased the control over foreign investment in its coal industry,"
he said, acknowledging that current policies allow foreign businesses to invest
in all coal sectors except those of rare coals.
"China particularly inspires those foreign firms with advanced technologies
to invest in such sectors as coal mine exploration and intensive processing of
coal," he added.
Shanxi is China's major coal producer. Statistics show that its proven
reserves of coal amount to 272.5bn tons, accounting for one third of the
country's total.
From 2000 to 2004, Shanxi's annual coal output has maintained an average
growth of 30m tons year-on-year. Last year, it coal output reached 493m tons, a
quarter of China's total. Meanwhile, the province's coal export reported 43.97m
tons in 2004, taking up 52 per cent of the country's total.
"The surging prices of oil and gas on the world market and the rapid growth
of China's energy-driven sectors like the power industry have jointly stimulated
the domestic demand for coal, therefore, the coal sector has become increasingly
heated," said Dong Jibin, vice president of the Shanxi Provincial Academy of
Social Sciences.
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