China prods private investors to help develop sports sector
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will encourage private investors to build public sports facilities and will cut red tape in the sports sector to help businesses, the cabinet said on Wednesday.
Firms will no longer need to get approval for holding public or commercial sports events, the government said in an online statement after a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
Preferential fiscal and land policies will be extended to private investors who build public sports facilities, said the cabinet, also known as the State Council.
It did not explain why private investors might be drawn to such public works, which have low or zero profit margins.
The cabinet also reiterated its promise to manage public budgets better and curtail the risks around some $3 trillion in public debt that regional governments have.
A campaign would be started to clean up public slush funds, while illegal fees collected by governments from businesses would be abolished.
China's parliament revised the budget law last week to allow local governments to sell bonds directly, a crucial reform that could untangle the country's public debt mess and create its first municipal bond market.
(Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Koh Gui; Qing; Editing by Alan Raybould)
