Private Enterprises Mushrooming in Shanghai

Shanghai, China's leading manufacturing center, added 121 private companies a day during the January-November period, averaging one every 12 minutes.

The city had 139,301 private companies at the end of October, up 250 percent from the end of 1995, according to the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Now there are 3,212 enterprises with a registered capital of more than five million yuan (about US$610,000). Of them, 40 have a registered capital of over 100 million yuan.

As a result, taxes paid by private enterprises have risen at an average annual rate of 60 percent during the 1996-2000 period, totaling 9.74 billion yuan (about US$1.17 billlion) by the end of 1999. Such taxes are expected to top 4.5 billion yuan (aboutUS$ 540 million) this year.

Meanwhile, the mushrooming of private enterprises has benefited the laid-off workers. By the end of 1999, 273,000 unemployed workers had been hired by private enterprises. In 2000, private enterprises created 110,000 jobs.

Now 8,500 private enterprises are engaged in scientific research and information consulting service.






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