WTO Access A "Cornerstone"

Credit Lyonnais Securities (Asia) Ltd. (CLSA) believes that China's accession to the WTO would form a cornerstone for the country's economic upswing, and suggests that Chinese enterprises should bake better use of overseas capital markets to get funds for business expansion.

"The WTO entry would create strong repercussions for China's economic growth," said Jing Ulrich, managing director of CLSA emerging markets.

She said the intense competition that Chinese enterprises would face after the WTO accession would provide powerful incentives to the country's economic reform and business reshuffling.

"The efficiency of China's State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to survive after the WTO accession," said Ulrish.

Meanwhile, she also noted that China's WTO accession would bring business opportunities for foreign companies after China further opens to foreign investment in such business areas as telecommunications and life insurance sectors.

China has to allow more foreign capital to its key economic sectors under an agreement reached with the United States and other WTO negotiation partners.

Ulrich also stressed that China's WTO accession would be a positive economic factor for Hong Kong due to the economic and geographic closeness between the Chinese mainland and the island.

"As the bridge between the Chinese mainland and the Western world, Hong Kong would be highlighted by international investors after China's WTO entry," said Ulrish.

She was speaking at a press conference yesterday for the CLSA China Economic Forum 2000, scheduled to open today in Shanghai.

The three-day forum, co-sponsored by CLSA and the International Co-operation Center under the State Council's Office for Restructuring the Economic Systems, will feature discussions of China's burgeoning high-tech, telecommunications and Internet sectors joined by senior government officials and diplomats such as Joseph Prueher, US ambassador to China and Endymion Wilkinson, European Commission ambassador to China.