China relaxes property-owning restrictions
Foreign companies will be able to hold 100% ownership in hotels in China by March 2005, under the recent trade deal which led to Chinese membership of the World Trade Organisation being approved.
Until now, international hotel groups have had to work with a Chinese partner in formal joint ventures as a condition of being able to trade in the country.
A spokeswoman for Six Continents, which has 30 hotels in China, not counting those in Hong Kong and Macao, welcomed the relaxation of ownership restrictions, although she said it was too early to say whether Six Continents would run its own hotels there.
She added that the general liberalisation of tariffs and import quotas written in to the deal would promote business in China, making it "more open to international business travellers, which has positive implications for our hotels".
Smaller tourist businesses will also be able to operate in China in future under the deal, because of a promise by Beijing to scrap minimum capital and turnover requirements for overseas travel firms.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 4-10 October 2001