Shanghai Revokes Drainage Industry MonopolyShanghai separated its sole drainage company into five companies Thursday to encourage competition and meet the challenges brought by China's expected accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).Han Zheng, vice-mayor of Shanghai, announced Thursday the reform measure aims to separate the functions of the government from those of enterprises. Under the reform program, the five new companies will be a state-owned investment company, an infrastructure construction company, and three independent companies sharing drainage responsibility in different districts of the municipality. Han noted that the drainage industry is among those which will be entirely opened without protection once China obtains its WTO membership. The market-oriented reform is to deal with such situation. He disclosed that foreign sewage treatment companies have expressed their willingness to enter the Shanghai market. According to experts, only half of Shanghai's waste water can be treated primarily. Some two million cubic meters of waste water flow into interior rivers without any treatment each day. |
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