China wants more foreign direct investment in less-developed central and west regions as it looks to narrow the wealth gap with big eastern cities, and will open up agriculture, automobile and mining projects among others, Reuters reports. China will encourage FDI in mineral products including zinc and tin in Guangxi Autonomous Region, though investment will be limited to joint ventures, according to a statement on the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) website.
The new guidelines, which cover 22 provinces, will be effective from June 10. Projects in the ‘encouraged’ category will enjoy preferential policies, the statement said. These usually include better tax treatment. Earlier today, the Commerce Ministry said that in the first four months of 2013, only 8.1% of China’s FDI went to the western provinces and 8.4% to the central region, compared with 83.5% to the eastern provinces.
Guangxi, along with Yunnan and Hunan provinces is one of China’s three main tin producing areas. According to official CNIA statistics, mine production of tin-in-concentrate last year was 17,091 tonnes, or 20% of national output. However production there has never recovered to previous peak levels of over 40,000 tpy following a major mining disaster in 2001. The new guidelines encouraging limited foreign investment in tin are in contrast to rules published by the NDRC and the Ministry of Commence (MOFCOM) in 2007, which put tin on a forbidden list of metals for foreign investment in mining and exploration.
