The country's mining authorities have urged Chinese enterprises
intending to explore overseas mineral resources to register their
development projects with the newly established
Ministry of Commerce.
The new policy will help Chinese mineral enterprises play a more
active role in the international mineral market, according to an
official with the Ministry of Land and Resources.
Huang Zongli, director of the ministry's Department of
International Co-operation, Science and Technology, said yesterday
the new measure can help the government obtain more thorough
information in this field, and, in turn, help those Chinese
enterprises explore world markets.
Huang pointed out that relevant departments of the Ministry of
Commerce can help co-ordinate work in certain cases to avoid
damaging competition between Chinese companies.
The overseas investment of Chinese mineral enterprises has seen
noticeable increases over the past few years, but a lack of a
co-ordinating mechanism has left some Chinese enterprises fighting
for the same international contracts by irrationally forcing prices
down, according to Huang.
"Even when one of them has eventually won the contract, the profit
margin is rather limited. Contracts can be won through mutual
compromises and joint effort," said Huang.
When asked what preferential policies Chinese investors might need
when investing in overseas mineral resources, Li Jindong, a leading
geology and mineral official of Central China's Hunan Province,
highlighted the government's risk sharing, especially at the
prospecting stage, which costs over 10 million yuan (US$1.2
million) in most cases.
"That cost is daunting for most Chinese mineral enterprises, which
have less funds and experience than their foreign competitors. The
government will try to help domestic mineral enterprises develop,"
Li said.
The Hunan provincial mineral authority will participate in a joint
investment in the sylvite mines of Thailand.
(China Daily May 20, 2003)