Recent reports claim that the China Three Gorges Project Corporation is seeking foreign investment for the US$37B Three Gorges project.
Plans are being drawn up for a share listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges.
Deputy general manager, Wang Jiazhu, said that the government is encouraging the project company to look at new ways of raising finance. Rather than just considering Chinese commercial banks the company is now considering overseas finance.
The plan is to obtain about 20% of the project financing through foreign investment, and capital raised through the share listing has the potential to provide a large amount of this.
Although the Chinese government has agreed to cover 60% of the project cost it has been estimated that a shortage of funds will be experienced between 2001 and 2003, and it is during this period that the highest project costs are expected to occur.
The government’s money will only materialise in the latter years of the scheme.