China is to lower its international telecommunications charges by an average of 20% in the second half of 1996 and may raise postage costs, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said. The planned reduction would include long-distance telephone calls to Hong Kong and Macau and would cut the ministry’s income by several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, to be set off by a hike in postal charges of more than 30%. China said it will gradually open its telecommunications market to foreigners, but gave no details. Currently, they can only invest in production of telecommunications facilities, provide loans, lease, build, operate and transfer and set up joint ventures, but cannot own.
