Private Entrepreneur In Revolutionary BaseYan'an is the hallowed revolutionary base of the Chinese Communist Party in Shaanxi Province, northwest China and also home to the Yasheng Hotel, run by Du Chengshi, a private entrepreneur.Du began business in 1993 after he resigned from his post as a director of policy research under the Yan'an Prefectural Administrative Office. Two years later, he built the Yasheng Department Store. Last year, he invested 100 million yuan (US$ 12.04 million) and built the 17-storey Yasheng Hotel, the biggest private enterprise in northern Shaanxi. Du's enterprises provide jobs for more than 1,200 local people and have declared 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) in taxes to the state. There are many private entrepreneurs such as Du in Yan'an in agriculture, industry and the service sector. Yan'an lags behind China's coastal areas in terms of economic development because the city is located in Chinese hinterland and has a week economic base. "Those small and low-efficient stores, hotels and restaurants can not change the backward looks of Yan'an," said Du. Yan'an has worked out a series of preferential policies and improved the investment environment to encourage the development of non-governmental businesses, which now accounts for 22 percent of the city's total gross domestic product. A private businessman from Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, has invested 120 million yuan (US$ 14.45 million) in a computer center beside the Yasheng Hotel. Du, however, is now building a hotel in Tianjin, a north China municipality. He also plans to build high-class apartment buildings and tourism attractions in Xi'an and Yulin in Shaanxi. "I just want to show that there are very good private entrepreneurs in Yan'an," Du said. |
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