Private firms encouraged to invest aboard

Private Chinese firms will be more welcome to invest abroad compared with State-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially in new energy sectors, a former French prime minister said over the weekend.

France is keen to attract Chinese firms to invest in its energy saving, environmental protection and new energy sectors, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said at a meeting in Beijing on Friday.

Compared with SOEs which may face restrictions while investing overseas due to their possession of public resources, private firms are more welcome to invest abroad, Villepin said at the first meeting of the consultative committee of China Minsheng Investment Corp (CMI).

Villepin, former president of the European Commission Romano Prodi, President of the National Committee on US-China Relations Stephen Orlins and six other political or business leaders have joined CMI's consultative committee to help Chinese firms invest aboard.

CMI, set up by 59 private enterprises whose assets have reached several trillion yuan in total, was established in Shanghai in May 2014 to engage in investment in sectors such as the new energy and photovoltaic industry in China and aboard.

Inviting foreign dignitaries to be counselors is a good way for Chinese firms to become familiar with legal and political circumstances in investment destinations and the extensive political lobbying of local authorities when facing barriers, Wang Yongzhong, a research fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Sunday.