Laws of the People's Republic of China

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation

Circular of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) on Improving the Statistics Work for Foreign Capital Utilization

WaiJingMaoZiSanHanZi [1996] No.639

November 25, 1996

The commissions (departments, bureaus) of foreign trade and economic cooperation of various provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately listed on the State plan, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Nangjing, Changchun, Shenyang and Chengdu, and Wuhan Foreign Investment Office:

With the ever deepening policy of opening to the outside world, foreign capital utilization, especially the utilization of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), has become a key growth factor of and is playing an increasingly important role in China's national economy. With a view to improving the overall level of foreign capital utilization, it is of vital importance to improve the statistics work for foreign capital utilization so as to provide full and accurate statistic data and analysis for macro decision-making. The current development level of statistics work across the country is imbalanced. Interior areas lag behind coastal areas in terms of geographical location. There has been an awfully large amount of wrong, missing, delayed and repetitious data and statistics, which has undermined the authority and completeness of the statistic data of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation on foreign investment. Some local governments pay inadequate attention to statistics work. Statisticians are changed frequently and some of them lack in adequate professional competence. MOFTEC and the National Bureau of Statistics recently published an amended version of the Statistics System for Foreign Capital Utilization (WaiJingMaoZiFaZi [1996] No.721). To coordinate the implementation of the new system and improve the statistics work for foreign capital utilization, it is hereby notified as follows:

1.

Foreign trade and economic authorities at various levels should organize their statisticians to study the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China and the new Statistics System for Foreign Capital Utilization. Governments at various levels should attach full importance to the statistics work for foreign capital utilization. All should conduct a thorough examination of the local statistics work while implementing the new statistics system and supervise and encourage the local statistics work for foreign capital utilization on a regular basis to ensure the statistics accurately reflect the real local situation of foreign capital utilization without any fake, missing, withheld or delayed data.

2.

Complete statistics systems for foreign capital utilization should be established and all connections should be streamlined in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and municipalities separately listed on the State plan. Specific measures should be taken to assist the establishment of statistics agencies, personnel arrangement, and supply of computer equipment, etc.

The statistic personnel of each local authority should be kept relatively stable. Competent foreign investment departments at provincial levels each should appoint a division chief responsible for the statistics work for foreign capital utilization and maintain a statistic personnel of no less than 2 people.

MOFTEC will establish a record system for statistic personnel. For file-keeping purpose, each local authority should report the computer supply conditions to MOFTEC together with a complete name-list of the statistic personnel at provincial and regional (municipal) levels as well as chiefs of statistics work before the end of this December. Any transfer in position of statistic personnel should also be reported to MOFTEC.

The review and approval authority of the contracts and statutes of enterprises with foreign investmentshould be transferred to the lower level in view of the subordinate's ability to assume the statistics work. Apart from other conditions, the authority should not be transferred to local agencies without certificates of computer-printing permission and conditions for statistics work. In case these agencies have been given the authority, they should be urged to meet the standards within a prescribed time limit.

3.

Authorities of all levels should be concerned about the work, study and life of the statistic personnel, try to help them with some specific problems and difficulties, strengthen professional training for the statistic personnel to continuously improve its overall professionalism. To coordinate the implementation of the new statistics system, MOFTEC will provide orientation training courses to the whole statistic personnel and all local governments are kindly requested to render support in personnel and funding.

4.

To ensure smooth implementation of the new statistics system in the next year, each local authority should pay close attention to the arrangement and transformation of initial data, which requires high expertise and a large amount of workload. The implementation of the new statistics system should top the agenda of local authorities before the end of this year and over the first quarter of the next year to ensure the successful transformation of the statistics system and the completeness and accuracy of the statistic data for foreign capital utilization.

5.

In accordance with the new Statistics System for Foreign Capital Utilization, MOFTEC will set criteria for appraising the statistics work for foreign capital utilization and conduct regular performance appraisal of the statistics work in each region. Units with sound performance will be praised and encouraged while those with bad records will be criticized and publicized. As for those that fail to make any improvement after repeated criticism, MOFTEC will take necessary measures and urge them to reach certain standards within the prescribed time limit.