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China
Undergoes Conceptual Changes After WTO
"Preferential
policies", " internal memos", "review
and approval" and some other once familiar concepts are
being phased out in China, since the country became a full
member of the World Trade Organization in December.
Instead
of preferential policies for local businesses, people are
talking more about "national treatment", said Yang
Yongchun, an official with the industrial and commercial administration
in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
The once
prevailing "internal memos" will either develop
into open and systematic laws and regulations or be nullified,
he said.
"There
will be fewer review and approval procedures to go through
when the legal system is cleaned up," said Yang.
The Chinese
government is reviewing laws and regulations to amend or abrogate
any provisions that are inconsistent with the WTO rules or
China's commitments. China will also enact new legislation
in case of absence of laws or regulations for the WTO purposes,
with a view to effectively fulfilling its WTO obligations
and commitments.
Over 10,000
papers issued by governments at provincial level are also
being reviewed.
The Liaoning
provincial government has reduced its intervention in business
activities by abolishing over 50 percent of the review and
approval procedures.
Government
intervention is only necessary for those few sectors that
involve the allocation of state resources, and established
laws and regulations will govern all other business activities,
said Yang.
The changes
brought by WTO, therefore, do not simply lie in China's economic
life, but in the ways people think and talk, said Lin Muxi,
president of the Economic Management Institute of the Liaoning
University.
"Officials
need to re-examine the traditional concepts and practices
against the WTO rules," said an official with the provincial
economic and trade department.
One example
he cited was "non-governmental business", and transitional,
all-inclusive concept that is used to refer to all business
types except those owned by the state.
"'Non-governmental
business' will be used less often now that China is a member
of WTO," he said, "We will use 'private' or ' joint-stock'
businesses in line with the international practice."
Conceptual
changes mirror social changes, said Wu Bin, a research fellow
at the provincial academy of social sciences, " After
all, the concrete measures taken by the government to fulfill
its WTO commitments are catalyst to such changes."
Most economists
here expressed their confidence that in the post-WTO scenario,
the average Chinese will value impartial, open and transparent
competitions and China will merge more with the global economy.
(People's Daily January 17, 2002)
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