OECD wants transparency from China

The OECD has called on China to bolster its rules for mergers and acquistions
in order to improve financial transparency and attract better-quality foreign
investment.

In its investment policy review on China for 2006 the OECD said that
approvals procedures for M&A in China had been speeded up with new
legislation, but added that the booming Asian giant still needed to do more.

In a statement, the OECD said that China’s regulatory framework for
cross-border M&A remained ‘a complex and incomplete patchwork of laws,
regulations and policy decisions made by various ministries and government
agencies’.

The OECD added that there was a lack of transparency, and low standards of
corporate transparency and disclosure in China, which made it difficult for
potential investors to carry out due diligence to accepted international
standards.

In order to address these concerns the OECD said China should streamline
its approval process for cross-border M&A and make it more transparent.

China should also put in place a sound competition framework and further open
its capital markets to foreign investors.

OECD