Forging ahead together with Transnationals ����An article headed "March forward together with Transnationals' sings praise of the achievements gained in Tianjin, a coastal city east of Beijing, in using foreign funding. ����The article says that for all the financial crisis in southeast Asia, the utilization of foreign funding in Tianjin in the third quarter of last year was still foremost among other areas in China. The absolute value of foreign funds used by Tianjin in the third quarter is next only to Shanghai. 14 indices in using foreign funds in Tianjin Economic and technological Development Zone topped all those in other zones. Among the 50 biggest international businesses rated by the US Fortune journal, 24 have made investment in Tianjin and 6 of the US top ten have also set up projects in the city. Tianjin vice-mayor Wang Shuzu says: The most important experience is to remove all barriers on the way of using foreign funds and swing the doors open in an omnibearing way, especially inviting the transnationals into Tianjin. He emphasizes that without cooperation with the transnationals, international funds cannot be genuinely used, sophisticated internatioanal managerial experiences and state-of-the-art technologies cannot be taken in and the rapid advance of the economy knowledge in the world cannot be kept pace with. ����Tianjin's experience on importing foreign finds shows that the transnationals' entry into the city has not curbed the city's economic development. Rather, it has given an impetus to the restructuring of industries and the technical retooling of the outdated enterprises. ����Data show that in the first 9 months of last year, the industrial output value of the 3-capital enterprises (joint venture, co-production enterprise and wholly foreign-owned enterprise) totaled over 62.7 billion yuan, making up 37.3% of the city's total; And the transnationls' industrial output value, profits and taxes made up 90% of the 3-capital enterprises' total. Tianjin's export amounted to US$ 5 billion, 2/3 of which was accomplished by the 3-capital enterprises and the export from the 3-capital enterprises was fulfilled by the transnationals. The transnationals have been active in many industrial fields in Tianjin such as digital telecom, electronics, fine chemicals, machinery, auto and drugs. The have not only lifted the manufacturing and technological level. Most important, they have promoted the managerial methods and personnel training. The third-ranked US Motorola acknowledges that its products made in Tianjin has topped those churned out in the US. Now 0.35 million people are working in the 3-capital enterprises in Tianjin and the transnational themselves have become modern international schools to train talents for China. Motorola has put 7% of its worldwide capital into Tianjin and 18% of its total profits came from Tianjin. It has added its investment in the city from US$ 120 million to US$ 1.1 billion ����202 major transnationals have made investment into 326 projects valued at over US$ 8 billion in Tianjin ����Wang Shuzu pledges to widen the area for opening up, cooperate with the transnational to beef up international competitiveness and boldly import applicable sophisticated technologies, funds. managerial experiences and marketing ways. Conditions permitting, he vows to set up China's transnationals the world over. Economicnews 1999-01-10 Page1