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中国人民银行


关于进一步支持对外经济贸易发展的意见
中国人民银行


银发[1998]332号



中国人民银行各省、自治区、直辖市分行、深圳经济特区分行；各国有商业银行，其它商业银行，城市商业银行（由当地人民银行转发）：
为促进对外经济贸易的发展，支持出口多元化战略，确保今年经济增长目标的实现，根据《贷款通则》和中国人民银行《关于改进金融服务，支持国民经济发展的指导意见》，现就有关问题提出如下意见：
一、完善支持对外经贸发展的金融服务体系。为适应对外经济贸易发展的需要，国家银行要进一步加大对外经贸支持的力度。中国银行要继续发挥支持外经贸发展的主渠道作用，促进外经贸企业的更快发展；其他国有商业银行要加大对自营进出口工业企业、农业和乡镇企业以及其他企
业出口创汇的支持；城市商业银行等其他金融机构对开户企业的外经贸出口也要给予大力支持；政策性银行要充分发挥自身特点，积极支持机电产品和成套设备等出口。金融机构在支持对外经贸发展中，既要支持外经贸企业的进出口，又要支持其他企业的自营进出口；既要支持国有外贸企
业的发展，又要支持非国有外贸企业的发展。
二、适当增加对外经贸企业的贷款。有关银行要适当增加对外经贸企业的贷款，重点支持有效益、信誉好、有稳定经贸关系的进出口企业；鼓励有关金融机构组织国内银团本外币贷款或参与国外银团贷款，支持外经贸企业的发展。
三、对资信良好的企业适当发放信用贷款，增加授信额度。有关银行可根据外经贸企业的特点及其偿债能力、获利能力、经营管理能力、履约情况及发展潜力等因素对外经贸企业的信用进行评定。对经审查、评估，确认资信良好，有偿还贷款保证的企业，按照《商业银行法》的规定，
可以实行授信额度管理。
四、支持企业多渠道筹集资本金。对效益好、守信用、还款有保证的外经贸企业，可以比照工业企业的办法发放中期流动资金贷款，帮助其将部分参与流动资金周转的自有资金用于增加效益好的中外合资企业的中方股本；积极支持外经贸企业通过资本市场筹集资金，拓宽资本金来源渠
道。
五、运用利率手段支持外经贸发展。商业银行要认真执行中国人民银行的利率政策，对风险小、效益好、守信用、贷款额度大的外经贸企业，利率可以不上浮或少上浮；严禁乱提高存贷款利率。
六、积极为外经贸企业的发展提供保险服务。鼓励国内财产保险公司拓展进出口远洋货物运输保险，作好承保、理赔工作，支持外经贸业务的发展；发挥出口信用保险在支持外贸出口特别是机电设备出口方面的积极作用。经办出口信用保险的机构要严格按照国家风险分类，在核定的国
别限额内开展业务，严禁无序竞争、任意降低费率。
七、继续加大对机电产品出口的支持力度。中国人民银行对政策性银行支持机电产品出口的贷款继续实行贷款限额管理，可根据需要适当增加机电产品出口信贷规模。各有关商业银行要认真执行《关于金融系统要进一步做好支持机电产品出口工作的通知》（中国人民银行银发〔199
7〕61号）和《关于调整机电产品出口卖方信贷贷款利率的通知》（中国人民银行银发〔1996〕23号），加大对机电产品出口的支持。
八、积极支持企业境外工程承包和到境外投资设厂。对我国企业境外工程承包项目中机电或成套设备50％以上由国内提供的，各有关银行应给予优先支持，其境外分支机构应提供相关的配套服务；对经济效益特别突出的项目，在保证信贷资金安全的前提下，还可适当放宽国内提供的
机电或成套设备的比例，但最低不得低于20％。对符合条件的企业到境外投资设厂的，要积极予以支持。特别是对那些产品在国内市场趋于饱和而国外市场前景看好的企业、利用国内设备和零部件到国外进行生产和组装的企业，如其资金不足要优先予以支持。
九、积极支持外商和台、港、澳、侨商投资企业的发展。各银行要根据《外商投资产业指导目录》的要求，优先支持鼓励类企业的资金需要，增加其人民币和外汇贷款；对因受亚洲金融危机影响，资金暂时不能到位但经济效益好的高新技术产业和有利于扩大就业的外商、台、港、澳、
侨商投资企业的在建项目，可适当给予信贷支持；要通过改进金融服务帮助外商和台、港、澳、侨商投资企业改善投资环境。
十、支持合理的外贸进口。在支持外贸出口的同时，要支持合理的外贸进口。对符合国家进口政策的产品，特别是国内短缺的资源性产品和高新技术产品的进口，有关银行要积极给予金融支持。
十一、运用“封闭贷款”支持外经贸企业。对暂时亏损，但有订单、还款有保证的外经贸企业，可参照国有工业企业的办法对其发放封闭贷款，经贷款行严格审查后，通过开证、发放打包贷款、押汇、贷款回收等一条龙服务的方式支持其发展。对濒临破产的企业不能发放这类贷款。
十二、防范外经贸贷款中的金融风险。在对外经贸企业提供支持的同时，要依法维护银行贷款自主权，防范金融风险。任何单位或个人不得强迫银行发放贷款或提供担保。对经营性亏损严重、濒临破产、无贷款偿还能力的企业，对以各种形式逃废、悬空银行债务和有意拖欠银行贷款本
息的企业，对挪用贷款从事股票、期货交易的企业，对国家法律、法规和产业政策明令禁止或限制支持的项目、企业、产品等，各金融机构必须停止发放新贷款，限期收回已发放的贷款。要加快中央银行贷款登记系统的建设，为商业银行提供贷款信息查询服务，防止企业利用多头开户、多
头贷款等手段逃避银行债务。



1998年7月19日
Partnership - New option for foreign investment in China

Zhiguo Li


　A new door to partnership is opened by the Chinese government to the foreign investors under this post-financial turmoil era in order to attract more foreign investment and provide more employment. On November 25, 2009, the State Council of the PRC promulgated the Measures for the Administration on the Establishment of Partnership Business by Foreign Enterprises or Individuals in China adopted at the 77th executive meeting of the State Council on August 19, 2009, which shall come into effect as of March 1, 2010 (“the Foreign Partnership Measures”). The Foreign Partnership Measures is regarded as supplementary to the Partnership Business Law of the People's Republic of China (“the Partnership Law”), article 108 of which provides that the measures for the administration on the establishment of partnership business by foreign enterprises or individuals shall be formulated by the State Council. Therefore the Partnership Law is the basic law for foreign enterprises or individuals (collectively “foreign partners”) to establish the partnership business in China (“foreign partnership”).

　The initial effort to formulate this kind of measures with the authorization of the Partnership Law can be tracked to January 2007 when the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (MOC), as requested by the Legislative Affair Office of the State Council, promulgated a draft of the Measures for the Administration on the Foreign Funded Partnership Business (“the Draft”) for public consultation. The Draft mostly reflect the intention of the MOC to remain the approval authority for the foreign partnerships as it does in the setup of the other three types of FIEs, such as equity joint venture, contractual joint venture and wholly foreign owned enterprise (i.e., EJV, CJV and WFOE, collectively FIEs). But the final Foreign Partnership Measures kick the MOC and its local branches (“the MOC local branches”) out from the charging authority with the replacement by the local authorized branch of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC local branch), which is unexpected to but welcome by the professionals and entrepreneurs. This article will do analysis on the Foreign Partnership Measures from four perspectives: foreign partnership models, foreign partners’ qualification, thresholds and registration of the foreign partnership, in aiming to describe a clear foreign partnership roadmap for foreign partners.


Foreign Partnership Models

　Foreign partners can set up the foreign partnership in China in three models: a. with the other foreign partners; b. with the Chinese individuals, legal persons and the other organizations registered and located in Mainland China; c. through participating the existing domestic partnership.

　In the models above, the foreign partners have the option to take the form of general partnership, limited liability partnership or limited partnership stipulated by the Partnership Law, among which the limited liability partnership is only for the professional institutions such as law firms and accounting firms. Comparing with model a and b, model c seems more feasible and time-and-cost saving for the foreign partners. A complete due diligence will be conducted in order to minimize the risk from the operation of the domestic partnership before the participation date of the foreign partners. In consideration of the current administration and nature of the partnerships, lack of credibility and the other elements in China, it will be difficult to get a complete due diligence report satisfied with the foreign partners. Therefore, models a and b are highly recommended. Which model of a or b take needs the consideration and balance of the foreign partners based on their business plan, legal structuring, such as whether foreign partners themselves intend to do the business competing with the foreign partnership and how to exit by transferring the contribution in the partnership, ect., and the thresholds discussed below.

Foreign Partners’ Qualification

　The difference in the expression on the partners from overseas and China should be noted. Foreign partners only include foreign enterprises and individuals. The Chinese partners include Chinese individuals, legal persons and the other organizations. There is no unified legal interpretation on the “enterprise”, though mostly it refers to the profitable organizations. This uncertainty may come from the prudency of the legislator of China on the qualifications of foreign partners. Under article 184 of the Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues concerning the Implementation of the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China for Trial (“the Opinions”), this expression of “enterprise” on the foreign partners allow the SAIC local branch more discretion to judge whether the foreign partner is a qualified “enterprise” or not in accordance with the relevant Chinese laws. In this scenario, the foreign partners need to note that they should not fall into the types of entities prescribed in article 3 of the Partnership Law if they aim to be a general partner, which says that wholly state-funded company, state-owned company, listed company, public-welfare-oriented institution or social organization may not become a general partner.

　Regarding the foreign individuals, they must have full capacity for civil conduct in accordance with article 14 of the Partnership Law. The international private law problem will also be involved here. Pursuant to article 180 of the Opinions, the foreign individuals who conduct civil activities in the territory of China, shall be regarded as having full capacity for civil conduct if they have that in accordance with China laws, no matter what their national laws requires for their capacity for civil conduct. Foreign individuals at or above the age of 18 years old are qualified to be the foreign partners if they are not mentally ill.

Thresholds for Foreign Partnership

　Some thresholds, such as the approval by the MOC, imposed on the FIEs are lifted for foreign partnership. This means that the foreign partnership and the domestic partnership will be treated with unified threshold in the aspect of approval, which will definitely reduce the criticism from the international community, but may cause more from the domestic public (including those FIEs). But it does not mean that there will be no thresholds review on foreign partnership.

　Article 3 of the Foreign Partnership Measures lists the general thresholds for the foreign partnerships. The establishment of foreign partnership shall abide by the Partnership Law and the other relevant laws, regulations and rules, and comply with the industrial policies for foreign investment. These general thresholds need to be analyzed together with the reference to the other relevant laws, regulations, rules and policies.

　First, the threshold provided by the Partnership Law is the pre-approval on the business scope. Where the business cope of a foreign partnership contains any item, for example oil distribution, that is subject to approval prior to registration according to laws or regulations, such approval shall be sought in advance and submitted at the time of registration with SAIC local branch. These pre-approvals involve , but not limited to, the Ministry of Land, the Ministry of Transport, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, etc., which depends on the business of the foreign partnership.

　Second, the Provisions on Guiding the Orientation of Foreign Investment (2002) and the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries (revised in 2007) (collectively “foreign investment industrial policies”) set up the industrial threshold for the foreign partnerships, which are the industrial policy basis for the SAIC local branch to review registration application to establish foreign partnership in China. This will obviously increase the working load of the SAIC local branches since they are lack of the experience in this kind of foreign investment industrial policies review. We may also anticipate that there might be different explanation and implementations on the above two documents, which will be the problem faced by those foreign partners who submit the application in the first half year after the Foreign Partnership Measures comes into force on March 1, 2010.

　The third threshold is that the verification is required if the project invested by the foreign partners falls into the scope described in the Provisional Measures Governing Verification of Foreign Invested Projects. The charging authority is the National Development and Reform Commission and its local branches, which depending on the amount of the total investment and the nature of the project.

　It is necessary to note the forth threshold hidden in the important expression in article 3 of the Foreign Partnership Measures, which put the “rules” as the legal basis for the establishment of foreign partnerships. In the legal system of China, it indicates that the State Council authorizes the ministries or departments under the State Council (“the Ministries”) to issue necessary “rules” applicable to foreign partnerships. It also reflects that the existing valid “rules” issued by the Ministries, including those applicable to the representative offices opened by foreign law firms in China, are still the barrier for the foreign partners to access the local market in China.

　The final threshold comes from the commitment of China in its WTO accession. Although the State Council encourages those foreign partners who have advanced technology and management experience to establish foreign partnership in China with the purpose to facilitate the development of the modern service industry, at this stage, the services industries may only limited to those listed in the Schedule of Specific Commitments on Services (Annex 9 of the Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China) and the openness will not be wider than the commitments therein.

Registration of the Foreign Partnership

　In the FIEs regime, all investments by foreign investors need the pre-approvals of the MOC or MOC local branches. In the approval process, the MOC or MOC local branches will review, but not limited to, the content of the application, the article of associations of FIEs and contracts signed by the parties if any. Generally, this approval procedure will take 5 working days to 90 working days depending on the nature and total investment of the project. In this regard, the cancel of this approval for the foreign partnership will significantly escalate the speed of the establishment in the procedural stage and to a great extent reduce the uncertainty from the MOC or MOC local branches.

　The Foreign Partnership Measures stipulates that the representative or agent of all the partners shall submit the establishment application only to the SAIC local branch and not the SAIC. The submission shall include, besides the documents required by the Regulations on the Administration of Registration of Partnership Business (revised in 2007, “Partnership Registration Regulation”), the explanation on compliance of the foreign partnership with the foreign investment industrial policies, which will ease the review by the SAIC local branch. In this regard, the review may not be limited to the formality as provided in article 16 of Partnership Registration Regulation. It seems impossible for the SAIC local branch to issue the license to the foreign partnership on the spot. In this scenario, the SAIC local branch shall make a decision on whether to issue the license to the foreign partnership within 20 working days after the date it accepts the complete application.

　The Foreign Partnership Measures is the second case for MOC and MOC local branches to lose approval authority in the recent years. The first case is for the representative office opened by most of foreign enterprises in China since 2004. Although the loss of approval authority, the MOC local branches at the same level with the SAIC local branches accepting the application for establishment of foreign partnership shall be advised the registration information (including the establishment, alteration and cancel) of the foreign partnerships by the latter.

Conclusion

　For those foreign partners not interested in establishing professional foreign partnerships such as law firms in China, they are now can access the Chinese market with a presence in the option of partnership. The approval procedures involved with the MOC or its local branches as set up for FIEs has been removed. The minimum investment (registered capital) requirement for FIEs has been reduced to RMB30,000 (RMB100,000 for one-person limited liability company) by the Company Law of the People's Republic of China (revised in 2005), the Foreign Partnership Measures leave the minimum investment open to the partners. The foreign partners can contribute with the currency (freely exchanged foreign currency or legally earned RMB), in kind, IPR, land use right, the other properties or labor service (limited to general partners) to the foreign partnerships. All these will minimize the cost for foreign partners to achieve their goal of profit maximization in China. But those enterprises focusing on the investment business, such as the foreign-funded venture capital investment enterprises and foreign-funded investment companies, are excluded from the Foreign Partnership Measures due to lack of experience in administrating this kind of enterprises by the government.