Study On The Legal Issues Of International Investment In Pan-Beibu Gulf Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation

The trend of economic globalization and regional economic integration is inevitable to the development of world economy in the 21st century. As a supplementary to the regional economic cooperation, sub-regional economic cooperation may effectively speed up the process of regional economic integration. In order to enhance the economic cooperation between China and ASEAN via the sea, Chinese government proposes to advance Pan-Beibu Gulf economic cooperation, making it a new sub-regional cooperation under the framework of CAFTA, which is conducive to meet the challenges of global financial crises by all parties in the sub-region together, to enhance the comprehensive cooperation between China and ASEAN, to consolidate the base of China-ASEAN strategic partnership.The economic development in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region needs investments, so promoting mutual trade and investments is one of the general objectives of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation. The subscription of the Agreement on Investment of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN lays a solid legal foundation for the investment cooperation in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region, while Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation is conducive to expand the mutual investments between China and ASEAN. The laws and regulations of international investment in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region regulate the investments in this region from international, regional, bilateral, national, and local levels respectively. They should be in line with the trend of investment liberalization and facilitation, and provide effective institutional guarantee for the opening and development of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region, as well as the economic prosperity of CAFTA. Any types of international investment dispute in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region have corresponding settlements. The involved parties should try to settle the real international investment disputes by friendly methods to get a win-win resolution, according to the types and features of the disputes.China should take the opportunity brought by Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation to incent competent Chinese enterprises to go abroad and invest in the ASEAN nations around Beibu Gulf. As the major driving force of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation, Guangxi should seize the opportunity to attract more FDI, so as to boost the level of opening up and development of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone.The thesis has four chapters, and the main contents are as follows:Chapter 1 is the general introduction of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation and international investment, including the concept and features of sub-regional economic cooperation, the relations between sub-regional economic cooperation and regional economic cooperation, the relations between Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation and China-ASEAN comprehensive economic cooperation, the urgency of enhancing Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation in the global financial crises, the development of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation in the past four years, the inter-action of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation and China-ASEAN mutual investment, and the favorable conditions for promoting the investment cooperation in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region. Chapter 2 analyses the legal framework of international investment in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region from international, regional, bilateral, national, and local levels respectively, including the global and regional treaties concerned with international investment, such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures, the Convention Establishing the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other State, the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between China and ASEAN, the Agreement on Investment between China and ASEAN, the Agreement on Dispute Settlement Mechanism between China and ASEAN,the bilateral agreements on protection of investments and for the avoidance of double taxation signed by China and the ASEAN nations around Beibu Gulf, the foreign investment laws of China and the ASEAN nations around the Beibu Gulf. Since the local government is one of the important parties in sub-regional economic cooperation, the local policies and regulations made by the government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the advocator of Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation, are especially referred to. Then the main rules of international investment in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region are analyzed and commented from three aspects of investments, investors, and treatment of investment respectively.Chapter 3 is about the dispute settlement mechanism of international investment in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region, because investment disputes are inevitable in the international investments in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region. In this chapter, the types of international investment dispute and their settlements are introduced first. Then the settlements of investment dispute between states, between states and nationals of other states, between the nationals of different states in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation are analyzed by comparing the relative provisions of disputes settlement in the Agreement on Investment between China and ASEAN and the bilateral agreements on protection of investments signed by China and the ASEAN nations around Beibu Gulf, so as to settle the above investment disputes properly.Chapter 4 is the suggestions for China's participation in the investment cooperation in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region. To take the opportunity brought by Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-regional economic cooperation, China should establish and improve the law system of promoting direct investment abroad, to incent and protect Chinese enterprises'investment in the ASEAN nations around Beibu Gulf, and should give full play to the Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Forum and other forums, which may promote the investment cooperation in Pan-Beibu Gulf sub-region. Guangxi should further optimize the environment of investment to attract high quality FDI and construct rational industrial structure,so as to accelerate the development of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Economic Zone.