Foreign-Invested Leasing Companies: A New Lease on Life?

China's fiscal experts have for years been begging legislators to create a more transparent legal framework for financial leasing by foreign-invested leasing companies. The scant possibility for foreign investment given by last year's Administration of Lease Financing Companies Procedures appears to have been ruled out by the central bank. In August 2001, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) issued a new set of rules to apply to foreign-invested leasing companies. In view of the recent closing of a foreign-funded leasing company this year, MOFTEC will need to convince investors that the new rules will work.