NORTH KOREA has chosen a Chinese-born entrepreneur to head its first special administrative region (SAR), a walled-off region designed to stimulate foreign investment.

　　Yang Bin, an orchid exporter and property developer, told a news conference in Pyongyang Monday that he would be chief executive of the Sinuiju SAR, which would have its own legislature and courts.

　　Yang, a 39-year-old Chinese with Dutch nationality, said the SAR would be built on 132 square kilometers of land in Sinuiju City on the Yalu River, opposite the Chinese city of Dandong in Liaoning Province.

　　The North Korean Government announced last week it wanted to turn Sinuiju City into an international commercial and tourism hub.

　　Zhang Qiyue, spokeswoman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said yesterday that China welcomed and supported the establishment of the Siniuju SAR.

　　The zone would have no import or export tariffs and a 14 percent income tax rate. It will be visa-free to everyone except North Koreans.

　　Foreign investment in North Korean thus far has been restricted to a few industrial parks, including the 11-year-old Rajin-Sonbong free-trade zone.

　　Foreign investment in North Korean thus far has been restricted to a few industrial parks, including the 11-year-old Rajin-Sonbong free-trade zone in the country's isolated northeastern region.

　　North Korea's willingness to give political power to a Chinese-born, China-based entrepreneur has astonished foreigners in Pyongyang.

　　But in January last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited Shanghai, touring auto and computer chip plants and the stock exchange, raising speculation that he was considering market reforms.

　　Since July, North Korea has raised wages and eased price controls in moves that outside observers have viewed as significant.

　　Yang said the North Korean Government was committed to not interfering in the experiment at Sinuiju, which it said would use either Chinese yuan or U.S. dollars as currency and Korean, Chinese and English as official languages.

　　(SD-Agencies)

　　Orphan-turned tycoon

　　YANG BIN was born to poor parents in Nanjing and orphaned at five.

　　He studied and taught politics at a mainland naval college before leaving in 1987 to study at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he gained Dutch citizenship and started a China-Europe textile trading business.

　　His big break came when Euro-Asia Agriculture (Holdings), in which he holds a 54 percent stake, was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in July last year. Yang is chairman of the firm which grows and exports orchids from China.

　　Yang was named by Forbes magazine as the second richest businessman on the Chinese mainland last year, with estimated personal wealth of US$900 million.

　　There has been speculation that his company is being investigated over alleged tax evasion. In July, Yang said Euro-Asia had been probed by Chinese tax authorities but added it was a routine investigation.

　　He has been investing in North Korea for two years, but does not speak Korean. He said he was chosen to head the SAR because he had been developing agricultural projects in the country.

　　(SD-Agencies)