China's top legislature, Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, passed a law on port administration Saturday to upgrade the construction, management and competitiveness of the country's sea and river ports.
To be in effect on Jan. 1 next year, the law sets out new legal competencies of local governments with jurisdiction over ports and companies running ports.
Governments will merely play the role of supervision and coordination, and companies will run ports in accordance with market principles in a transparent and unbiased manner.
All China's ports have to undergo related administrative restructuring before the end of this year, said resources with the Ministry of Communications.
The Chinese government opened its ports to overseas investment last year, and the new legislation opens the door even wider.
There are 1,467 ports in China, including 165 seaports and 1,302 river ports. Of these, 55 ports were built with foreign funds.
Since China set up its first container cargo joint venture in 1987, over 180 port facility joint ventures have been set up, involving a total investment of over 20 billion yuan (US$2.42 billion), with 11 billion yuan from overseas investors.
Since April this year, four new joint-ventures have applied to be established in China, which involve 800 million yuan (US$96.6 million) in foreign capital.
Currently, China's ports handle 9 percent of domestic cargo transportation and 85 percent of cargo in foreign trade.
Given the rapid growth of China's foreign trade, ports are expected to see an annual increase of 10 percent in freight volume, rising from the current 1.6 billion tons to 2 billion tons in 2005.
Given this rapid growth trend, the law will help tighten government supervision and improve port administration and operation, said an official with the Ministry of Communications.
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2003)
