Non-State Enterprises Fair Opens in YunnanThe five-day event has attracted more than 13,000 businessmen from both at home and abroad, including more than 200 from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and more than 400 from a dozen foreign countries. Li Ruihuan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, sent a congratulatory letter on the opening of the fair. Li said in his letter that non-state businesses are an important component of China's socialist market economy, and plays an important role in promoting the development of the national economy. He expressed his belief that the current fair is expected to stimulate the healthy development of non-state businesses and the national economy as a whole. The fair consists of a series of events that include a display of scientific achievements, a personnel exchange program, an exhibition of projects seeking cooperation partners and a forum on the development of China's non-state businesses in the 21st century. Non-state businesses have flourished across China since the early 1980s. By the end of 1999, China had 1.5 million private enterprises and 31.6 million individual industrial and commercial businesses, employing a total of 62.4 million people. Statistics show that revenue of the private sector account for 10 percent of the provincial-level total and 30 percent of the county-level total. The fair is sponsored by the State Economic and Trade Commission, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the ministries of education, science and technology and foreign trade and economic cooperation, and Yunnan Provincial People's Government. Supachai Panitchpakdi, deputy prime minister of Thailand and the WTO director-general-in-waiting, was present at the opening ceremony. |
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