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imported into the province under more than 4,000 contracts for the processing, assembling or finishing of customers materials. In addition, equipment worth some US$44 million has been introduced for more than 100 compensation trade projects.
Allegations of bribery
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Chinese officials are receiving bribes from businessmen and as a result are becoming increasingly prone to corruption, said People's Daily on 7 January. The front-page commentary alleged that "some foreign capitalists explode sugar-coated bombs by presenting money and gifts and dragging people into the mire of corruption for their own private gain". separate report, the newspaper said that in a village in Guangdong people were using cars as bribes in order to effect their departure for Hong Kong. It said that as soon as a villager was given permission to leave the commune, his relatives in Hong Kong would present the village with a car as a gift.
Total Chine begins drilling for oil
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Although a number of foreign oil companies have been involved in seismic survey work, the French firm Total Chine of Hong Kong is the first to begin drilling for oil under a joint agreement with Peking. Drilling began on 8 January in the Gulf of Tonkin. Total Chine concluded the agreement in May 1980 to search for off-shore oil in an area of 10,000 square miles in Chinese waters off Tonkin Bay. Phase one of the seismic investigations were completed in cooperation with the South Sea branch of China Petroleum Corporation based in Zhangjiang on the Leizhou Peninsula off' Hainan Island. The company has been given four years to determine whether the oil resources discovered will have sufficient commercial value.
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According to press reports, a Hong Kong company, Petroleum and Mining Equipment and Supply Far East Ltd. has been negotiating with the authorities in China to build a "petroleum centre" in Guangzhou. A spokesman for the company said that Guangzhou is likely to play a major role as an oil supply base and operational headquarters for the South China Sea and that preparations were in hand to build there a "petroleum centre" to' house all foreign experts who are working in China's off- shore oil fields.
Cargo container venture opens in Guangzhou
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A container manufacturing plant in Guangzhou built under a triangular compensatory trade contract was officially opened on 20 January. The three partners in the venture are the Guangzhou Shipyard (under the direction of the Ministry of Machine-Building), Civet Investment of Hong Kong and Container Transport International, an American-based leasing company. Under the contract, the foreign investors will supply equipment and raw materials, while the Chinese side will provide electricity, gas, water and fuel and is responsible for processing. products will be purchased by the foreign partnend on Shipyard will repay the (unspecified) loan.
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