Of particular concern is foreign investors' interest in investing in China's telecommunications service sector.

"The most important thing for the administration, at present, is making its current industrial regulations suitable for international practice because of the great changes we expect with WTO access," said Li Guobin, division chief of the policy and regulation department with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

Many feel China will be able to wrap up all negotiations concerning WTO access within this year after its negotiations with the European Union are concluded.

A landmark trading agreement with the United States last November paved the way for China to achieve its long-standing goal of obtaining WTO membership.

Li said regulations concerning foreign investment in the country's telecom service sector are under discussion, but declined to provide details.

"The new regulations should accord with WTO membership requirements and reflect consideration of our own interests on the basis of individual agreements with other member countries," said Li.

He said foreign telecom investors will be treated almost as nationals after China enters the WTO, but they will still need to complete necessary procedures and obtain licenses from telecom administrations.

China is now saddled with outmoded telecom regulations which are being used to deal with a fast-changing industry. The official Telecom Law, despite experiencing years of preparation, will hardly be ready in time for China's WTO access.

Information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan, in an recent interview with the China News Agency, said the related laws and regulations, ranging from telecom service to information security, are being drafted and some have been submitted to the State Council for approval.

Although the administration is stepping up its pace to provide regulations in anticipation of WTO access, mass enterprises still have little guidance to use to prepare for it.

"In terms of the opening-up of the telecom market, we are not preparing well from the administration to the enterprise," said Yang Peifang, chief economist of the Economic Research Center with the MII.

Yang said most of the domestic companies do not have the guidance they need to position themselves in the market before foreign investors are expected to be allowed in.

"The administrative management style is contributing to this poor response," he said.

According to foreign agencies' reports, China will phase out all geographic restrictions for paging and value-added services in two years, for mobile phones in five years and domestic wireline services in six years.

(China Daily March 5, 2000)