China will make greater efforts this year to streamline travel agencies throughout the country in a bid to form an industrial code, the China National Tourism Administration said Wednesday.

This year, China will open the tourism industry wider than it has promised before the country enters the World Trade Organization (WTO), said Director He Guangwei of the administration said.

He said one to three well-performed international travel agencies will be given a go-ahead to enter the Chinese market by controlling the shares of Chinese travel agencies or establishing solely foreign-funded travel agencies.

The operations of these foreign travel agencies will set an example for their Chinese counterparts to promote reorganization and internal restructuring, said the official.

Domestic travel agencies, big or small, will all be subject to identical conditions for market access under the same market rules,so that the efficient ones will prosper and the inefficient ones will be eliminated.

The National Tourism Administration, at the same time, will strictly monitor the operation of all domestic travel agencies, and those that violate the existing laws and regulations will be punished, he said.

( People's Daily January 09, 2002)