Top statistician warns of foreign monopolies
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-09 06:11

Top Chinese statistician Li Deshui has appealed for special attention to emerging monopolies, as multinational companies begin purchasing Chinese counterparts.

Li, director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that some foreign corporations are restructuring their investment in China in an effort to play a dominant role in a certain sector.

The official made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body. Li is a member of the CPPCC National Committee.

Other CPPCC members echoed Li's view, saying that a certain foreign corporation could stealthily establish a monopoly position in the Chinese market in this way.

The renminbi savings of Chinese residents reached 14.8 trillion yuan (US$1.75 trillion) at the end of January this year. The country's foreign exchange reserves rank second in the world, said Xie Zhaohua, a CPPCC National Committee member.

Supportive policies should be given to domestic enterprises to help them upgrade technologies, speed up innovations, catch up with multinationals and turn out better products, he said.

Official statistics show that Kodak has taken half of China's market share in photo sensitive materials; Fujifilm, 25 per cent; Microsoft, 95 per cent; and Cisco, two thirds in their respective fields.

"We have plenty of capital at home, but still some local governments prefer giving foreign investors preferential policies in terms of taxation, land use and loans," Xie said.

"We welcome multinational companies to set up technological research centres in China, but they are not allowed to pursue a technological monopoly," Xie said.

CPPCC National Committee member Tang Zhuhua also said great efforts should be made to protect domestic brands and fixed assets.

(China Daily 03/09/2006 page2)