According to the statistics from the State Administration of Textile Industry, between January and November 1999, State-owned enterprises under the textile department registered profits of 116 million yuan, a decrease of 3,204 million yuan in deficit from the same period of the previous year, the first turn from deficit into profit over the past six years since 1993 when State-owned textile enterprises fell into predicament and suffered continuous losses.

State-owned textile firms have achieved tangible results after two years of efforts in reducing the total volume, reorganizing assets, adjusting the structure, downsizing staff and re-diverting personnel.

The substantial increase of business profits constitutes the main factor for State-owned textile enterprises to turn deficits into profits. The profits earned by enterprises from sales of products in the Jan-Nov period last year increased by 2,905 million yuan over the same period of the previous year, accounting for 90.7 percent of the decreased amount of losses, indicating a marked enhancement in the overall profit-making ability of main textile enterprises.

The indexes of the operation of the State-owned textile economy have seen notable improvement. From January to November 1999, the total industrial output value of the key textile SOEs under the monitor of the textile industry increased by 10.4 percent, the added value of industry by 21.9 percent, sales income by 11.4 percent, and sales profits by 19.7 percent respectively. By the end of November 1999, the asset-liability rate of SOEs had decreased by 1.2 percentage points, the production-marketing rate of products increased by 1.2 percentage points; the funds of finished products dropped by 12.3 percent, and the rate of circulation rose by 1.9 percentage points compared with the same period of the year before. Improvement in the macro-economic environment has provided State-owned textile enterprises with important conditions for turning deficit into profit. China's textiles and clothing export has picked up rapidly. The exports handled between January and November last year were worth US$38.851 billion, basically equalling that in the same period of the preceding year, thus putting an end to the situation of export reduction for 15 consecutive months.