The Ministry of Commerce announced a draft regulation on used car management last week. According to the draft, foreigners may now invest in used-car trading markets or companies.

To enter the used car market, apart from relevant regulations, a company must provide venue and facilities for used car business, and be able to provide evaluation, transfer, registration and insurance on used cars.

The draft also separates business between used-car trading markets and used car dealerships. The latter are required to have a stable place of business and capacity of purchasing and selling used cars.

At the same time, the ministry released a draft on vehicle branding sales management. It says that vehicle suppliers should make available to the public a list of its authorized or disauthorized sales and service distributors. Vehicle suppliers should not provide cars to distributors who are not qualified or authorized.
 
Also, the new management draft requires a maximal 150 kilometers between car distributor and related parts suppliers and service places.

(Beijing Today October 4, 2004)