China Issues New Law to Oversee State Assets

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Oct. 29 – China’s 11th National People’s Congress Standing Committee has approved a law that will allow the management of state-owned companies to prevent their assets from being illegal seized.

The country has an estimated RMB30 trillion worth of state assets. According to China Daily, statistics show that between RMB80 billion to RMB100 billion worth of State assets are lost annually due to mismanagement.

The Enterprise State Assets Law will oversee almost 120,000 state-owned companies. “China has been devoted to the reform of its state-owned enterprises, and there is an urgent need for legislation to safeguard the management of state capital. This is the collective suggestion of many legislators,” Wu Bangguo, the nation’s top legislator, told China Daily. The Enterprise State Assets Law says that if malicious collusion is proven to have been taken place in a contract that involves State assets then the deal can be deemed void.

The law excludes assets owned by government agencies or the State’s natural resources such as land, forest, mines and water.

“It is very difficult to cover all assets in one law and I doubt there will be another law governing the other assets, because the current regulations will do,” An Jian, a senior NPC lawmaker, said at a news conference.

During the six-day legislative session, lawmakers also approved the Fire Control Law and the Mineral Resources Law, effective May 1, 2009.