Private Business Greet Development ClimaxThe private sector in China is experiencing a surge in development as the government provides ample space for its take-off.Private companies signed 1,180 contracts with a combined contractual value of 29.2 billion yuan at the first Non-State Enterprises Fair which closed Tuesday in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. Jing Shuping, president of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said the private businesses grew in the wake of China's open-door policy and economic reforms. The contribution of private businesses in China's gross domestic product climbed to 60 percent, to play a prominent role in the socialist market economy. As the government pursued a policy of "utilization under due limitation and transformation" toward private companies before 1978, private business experienced slow development. The Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China opened a green light for its development. The private sector stepped into a period of new development only after the convention of the 15th party congress in 1997. The Ninth National People's Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution last March, which raised the status of non-public sectors to "an important component of the socialist market economy" from the past definition of being "a complement to the socialist public economy." The Hope Group, China's largest private enterprise, has opened 140 enterprises across China. Liu Yonghao, president of the group, said, "The state has rendered unprecedented support to the private companies in recent years." By June this year, the registered capital of private companies in China totaled 1.14 trillion yuan, 11.3 percent more than the figure at the end of last year. More than 1,000 private companies have been granted rights to conduct direct import and export activities since 1999. The figure is continue to increase. Chen Qingtai, deputy director of the Development and Research Center of the State Council, said China's policy of seeking common development of all ownership with public ownership as the mainstay provides much room for the growth of private businesses. The proposal on the Tenth Five-Year Plan for 2001-2005 by the CPC Central Committee last October stipulates that the country will create an equal environment for the development of enterprises of all forms of ownership and encourages the growth of technology-intensive private companies. |
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