The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a regulation in August requiring all survey activities by overseas-funded institutions or domestic agencies employed by foreigners be approved by provincial statistical bureaus or the NBS before implementation. According to the regulation, survey results must be checked by statistical authorities before being released to the public or the parties that commissioned the project from the survey agencies. Some foreign firms are concerned about the regulation and worry that the Chinese Government intends to limit the survey activities of foreign firms and individuals.

On October 10, Xiong Zhennan, director-general of the bureau's Policy and Regulations Department, dismissed such worries by saying that survey activities of foreign-funded institutions will not be disrupted by new regulations intended to protect State secrets and improve the quality of the survey industry. Foreign-funded companies incorporated in China, including consulting firms, will still be permitted to do market surveys independently, although all such activity and releasing of results must be approved by authorities. Statistical authorities will continue to provide convenient service in reviewing survey projects and results.

Xiong pointed out that proper survey activities are conducive to China's reform and opening-up, and such activities are welcome. What the government wants to rectify with the regulation are surveys that are harmful to State security and the public interest. Substandard survey institutions are also said to be barred from entering the market. Bureau officials revealed that some individuals and institutions have been known to reveal State secrets in their surveys. Some disqualified survey agencies even provided false data.

The State review of survey results would not hurt the interests of concerned parties because authorities would not leak the results. Beginning next year, statistical authorities will issue qualification certificates to foreign-funded survey agencies operating in China and Chinese institutions employed by overseas organizations and foreign individuals to do surveys. Xiong stressed that institutions registered overseas can not do surveys in China. They must commission institutions that are registered in China and hold the necessary qualification certificates.
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China will become more open as it moves into the new century, said Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), at the Fortune Global Forum recently held in Shanghai. The central government is aiming to enlarge local governments' decision-making power in approving foreign-funded projects with an investment of more than $30 million. Local governments used to be authorized to approve foreign-funded projects only with an investment below that amount. This change indicates that China has decided to add layers and depth to the structure of its opening up in the face of economic globalization.

China will improve its policy towards foreign capital and enhance the environment for foreign investment, and the government will increase working efficiency, simplify approval procedures, and revise laws and regulations not in keeping with current developments. The country will further reduce the general level of taxation and expand the areas for foreign investment. Service sectors including insurance, renminbi transactions by foreign banks, retail and wholesale, tourism, telecom services, accounting and legal advice as well as the aviation and agency businesses will be gradually opened to foreigners.

The minister put particular stress on the fact that China is opening its financial sectors step by step on the basis of experience gained in pilot projects and lessons drawn from the Asian financial crisis. China has accelerated the reform of its financial sector and enhanced supervision in recent years. Zeng also spoke about the country's economic situation and its plans for the future. In the past 50 years, the Chinese people have changed a poor and weak country into one that is thriving and prosperous. The Chinese economy has grown rapidly, especially since reform and opening up started 20 years ago.

From 1978 to 1988, gross domestic product increased by an annual average of 9.7%. The socialist market economy has replaced the highly centralized planned economy and begun to play the basic role in distribution of resources. Looking into the new century, China will give priority to the development of social productive forces and devote all its efforts to the modernization drive. The State will continue to strengthen infrastructure construction, promote technical upgrading of the industrial structure and speed up agricultural modernization. In addition, the State will strive to develop the western areas and improve the environment.

The Chinese people have benefited greatly from 20 years of development and have found the road towards rapid development. There is no reason to slow down the pace of the advance. In the 1990s, China has increased input in infrastructure and basic industries and accelerated economic restructuring to lay a solid material basis for its development in the coming century.
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The 15-year-old Patent Law is set to be amended soon, officials from the National People's Congress (NPC) and the State Intellectual Property Bureau revealed recently. The revision draft will be presented to the NPC Standing Committee for review before the end of this year. It is now being studied by the State Council. The revision is expected to simplify application procedures of patents, provide stronger protection for patent holders and adapt the Patent Law to the Patent Cooperation Treaty so as to facilitate China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

According to Ma Lianyuan, deputy director of State Intellectual Property Bureau, more serious punishment stipulations have been adopted in the draft to combat infringement of patent rights. Patent offices are allowed to investigate such cases. Because of the complicated application rules and the rapid increase of applications, which rose over seven times in the past decade, applicants usually have to wait for months and even years to know if their applications are successful. There are also applications piling up waiting to be reviewed. The telecommunications and computer sectors have over 4,500 and 4,200 applications that are still on the waiting list, which will take all the current appraisers 10 years to finish. Director of the bureau Jiang Ying told the legislators that the bureau has given all its staff an extra 20% load and a 25% extra work load to speed up the review process.
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The government will implement a more rational and efficient management system for import and export licensing next year to improve its foreign trade environment. Under the new mechanism, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) will guide and supervise the granting of import-export licenses and catalogue commodities subject to license controls. The Quotas and License Affairs Bureau will bear responsibility for the management of granting licenses. In addition, local authorities in charge of granting licensees will also be separated from quota granting authorities. The aim of the reform is to accelerate the adjustment of the role of government, to adopt a unified management of import-export licenses, and to form an effective supervision and restriction mechanism between quota-creating and license-granting units.

MOFTEC formerly decided management measures for license granting, while the Quotas and Licenses Affairs Bureau administered the everyday granting of licenses. Because of MOFTEC's relative unfamiliarity with the details of license granting, the policies it created sometimes missed the point and failed to effectively control license granting work nationwide, trade analysts said. MOFTEC and local foreign trade and economic cooperation commissions will completely forego trivial administrative work and focus their attention entirely on research and studies concerning macrocontrol policies.

The reform is expected to reduce breaches of rules and corruption reported in some local license-granting units. Because local license granting units once controlled the granting of quotas as well, power abuses have frequently taken place. Sources said actions are under way in related units to prepare for a smooth launch of the new mechanism next year. China made massive adjustments in the scope of licensed commodities last year as one of its attempts to further integrate itself with the world market. Last year, commodities subject to import licensing were reduced to 35. This year goods controlled by export licenses have been reduced from 115 to 59. This is part of significant reforms MOFTEC has adopted over the years. The list of import commodities subject to licensing will be reduced. Regarding price undercutting expected after the removal of license controls, MOFTEC said that the government will use other macro-control means to deal with vicious competition and to maintain market order.
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About 85% of the prefectural-level cities in China have established trading centers for opening bidding on construction projects. The trading centers are aimed at ensuring fair and open competition between contractors, which could result in effective and clean operations in this field. In recent years, the Government has stepped up its efforts to battle corruption in the construction sector by encouraging open bids to avoid under-the-table deals.

In the first half of this year, 37,519 projects were contracted, of which 97.83% were contracted through opening bidding. By October 1, all prefectural-level cities will have their own construction project trading centers. Related departments are working to create the country's first law on tendering and bidding. The number of corruption cases involving the construction industry continues to decline. In 1995, the authorities uncovered 4,076 such cases, compared with 1,052 in 1998, and 270 in the first half of this year.
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China's economy grew at a respectable 7.4% annual rate during the first three quarters of this year, according to official data released on October 19. Officials predicted that increasing government spending will push the growth rate to above 7% in the last quarter. Like last year, the government announced a huge public spending plan in the second half of the year to stimulate the sagging economy growth. Many of the projects will be launched in the fourth quarter.

China's exports during the first nine months of the year grew by 2.1%, according to the General Administration of Customs. In September alone, export volume surged 20.2% to $18.6 billion, raising overall exports in the first nine months to 137 billion. Imports in the January-September period rose 19.3%. As a result, the overall import and export volume of the country climbed 9.4%to $254.6 billion. Exports to the United States grew by 10.7% between January and September, and exports to Japan rose 6.7%and to the Republic of Korea, 19.5%. Analysts say positive growth is a result of the fast economic recovery in Asia, which had been hit hard by the Asian financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the People's Bank of China announced on October 15 that China's foreign exchange reserves reached $151.51 billion at the end of September, up $6.55 billion from the end of last year. The bank reported several other signs of financial growth as well. China's financial sector did well and the money supply was healthy in the first nine months. Cash supply in the same period exceeded 105 billion yuan ($12.7 billion), up 70 billion yuan ($8.45 billion) over last year. At the end of September, outstanding deposits came to 10.55 trillion yuan, up 14.8% over last year. Personal savings totaled 5.93 trillion yuan ($716 billion), up 15.1%, and corporate saving rose 13% to 3.48 trillion yuan ($420 billion). At the same time, outstanding loans were worth 9.33 trillion yuan ($1.13 trillion), up 13%. In the first three quarters, the value of outstanding loans grew by more than 700 billion yuan ($84 billion)£®
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China's first directory guiding the development of its high tech industries has been promulgated recently. A total of 138 areas have been selected to serve as key fields for the development of this country's high tech industry in this and next year. These areas cover 10 major industries, such as agriculture, information, environmental protection, comprehensive use of resources, medicines, energy, communication and transportation, materials, machinery building, construction and light textiles. It is reported that ”°The Current Directory of Key Priority Areas of High-Tech Industries for Prior Development in China" was jointly worked out by the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology. For high-tech projects that have met the requirements set by the directory, the units responsible for execution may file applications to the State through governments at various levels and related departments for exemption or reduction of duties on their imported equipment. For projects that need support, the State will adopt bidding or other competitive means to select best legal representatives of the projects and extend support to them in terms of capital, discount of loans, risk subsidy, input of development funds of the project etc. The directory will be modified once a year, it is reported.

183 key areas set in the directory of this and next year are as follows:

A: Agriculture

1. Mass production of the major seeds and nursery stocks of agriculture and forestry;

2. Advanced technologies and equipment used to store, process and circulate major agricultural and sideline products;

3. High efficiency and safe biological pesticides and biological technologies for preventive treatment;

4. Genetic engineering products of agricultural animals and plants;

5. Technologies and equipment for agro intensive operational facilities;

6. Technologies and complete equipment for water-saving irrigation;

7. High-efficiency and pollution-free sets of facilities for intensive aquatics breeding and grassland animal husbandry;

8. Fine-bred domestic animal embryos biological engineering;[Q]Q9. Technologies and whole sets of equipment for high efficient commercialized production of organic fertilizers;

10. Industrialized production of grass seeds;

11. Stocks raising through stalks and microbiological preparation made of stalks;

12. Additives of fodder;

13. Bio-products for animals;

14. Technologies for polyploid breeding of seedlings with sea water and their applications;

15. New high efficiency, low poison and safe pesticides;

16. Agricultural new materials and masterbatch of agricultural films;

17. Agricultural informationization systems£®(to be continued)
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At the turn of the new century, Hubei Province is confident with a new homeland which will be open, civilized, modern and prosperous. Hubei will take advantage of the opportunity when the central government decides to shift its economic focus to the central and the western regions. To date, Hubei has become the center and hub of an economic growth pole while facing fierce competition. The province will abide by four policies including developing science and technology, foreign-oriented economic means, a regional economy and sustained growth, to ensure a smooth and healthy economic operation.

Hubei has optimized the industrial core structure and tried its best to develop agriculture and agricultural products processing. In the run of industrializing agriculture, the province combines production, processing with marketing, while with biological technology and bio-pharmacy in the dominant direction. The province lays its working emphasis on pillars, new and high-tech industries including autos, steel, building trades and building materials. Hubei also made preparation for the development of such strategic industries as modern finance, trade and information technology.

The province has spared no efforts to vitalize its State-owned enterprises. In general, a development pattern with public ownership in the leading position and other economic sectors thriving have taken shape. The modern enterprise system has been tried in 250 large or medium-sized State-owned enterprises throughout the province, among which 46 are listed in the market.

The province will promote education, scientific and technological reform to boldly develop new and high-tech industries. It will cultivate a new mechanism to ensure a smooth development of the knowledge economy. It's already in a urgent need for the province to optimize its investment environment, strengthen the opening up and attract more investment from home and abroad. The province will raise its efficiency, upgrade its work style, guarantee the interests of foreign investors, train more qualified personnel and make frequent analysis on the investment environment in Hubei. Meanwhile, the province will introduce advanced overseas technology, key equipment and scientific administration to raise its competitive strength.

Construction of an ecological environment is the foundation for the sustained development of a society. The province will develop its economy with the basis of the reasonable utilization of resources and a positive circle of the ecological environment. Hubei has launched the Green Project to raise forestation and the Blue Project to upgrade the water situation in the province. A lot of money has been injected to many projects to optimize the environmental situation in Hubei.
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Foreign trade in South China's Guangdong Province grew in the first eight months of the year. Total imports and exports were worth $86.07 billion over the eight months, up 1.7% over the same period last year. Imports and exports in August were worth $12.90 billion, up 20.3% over the same month last year, statistics from Guangzhou Customs Office (GZCO) indicated. GZCO analysts said the pickup of foreign trade in Guangdong Province will help China's foreign trade as a whole. The province's foreign trade more or less accounts for one-third of the nation's total.

Total exports over the eight months stood at $46.97 billion, down 5.7% from 1998 but 3.6% higher than statistics logged between January and July the year before. Exports in August alone were worth $7.56 billion, increasing 18.5% from last August. This change was a record high as well as an improvement over the first part of 1999. GZCO analyst pointed out that the surge of exports from general trade and the bullish momentum of processing trade boosted the income for August. Exports from general trade were valued at $1.95 billion in August, soaring 72.6% from August in 1998. Exports through general trade were worth $8.53 billion in the first eight months of this year, down 26% from a year ago. And exports from processing trade were worth $37.29 billion in the eight months, edging up 1%. The provinces exports from processing trade saw their first positive growth, though a slight one, between January and August.

The customs official said private enterprises did a good job in their exports during the period but that their contribution was still relatively small. Exports from private enterprises were worth $70 million in the first eight months, 2.2 times as high as one year ago. However, the momentum of other entities, including Stateowned enterprises (SOEs), foreign-funded enterprises and collectively run enterprises seemed to slow down. Exports of SOEs fell 8.6% to $21.14 billion, foreign-funded enterprises 2.3% to $24.35 billion; and collectively run enterprises 16.4% to $1.20 billion. Mechanical and electrical products were the key commodities exported in the eight months. These were 49.9% of the total. Exports to the United States and the European Union rose while the exports to Hong Kong and Japan fell.

Imports in the first eight months grew steadily during this period. Total imports were worth $39.10 billion, rising 12.3%; and imports in August were worth $5.34 billion, increasing 22.9%.
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Once a barren and deserted village, Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone has been transformed into a burgeoning industrial district since it was established 15 years ago. As one of the first development zones approved by the State Council, the Dalian development zone enjoys preferential policies for coastal economic and technological development zones. It also uses a new management system. By the end of August this year the development zone has attracted foreign investments totaling $6.5 billion. The construction of a 30-square-kilometer infrastructure has been largely completed. Reforms that have reduced investment costs have strengthened investors' confidence in the Zone.

Located in Liaodong Peninsula, the Dalian development zone has many advantages. Northeast China is rich in natural resources. There are 104 different types of minerals, nearly three-fourths of the nation's total. The area accounts for 45% of China's annual timber production. The city of Dalian is also known for its seafood and fruits. Its apple, peach, grape and cherry are world famous. Dalian is also one of China's ideal international cargo transferring ports. It has become an important container port, grains port and oil port in the North. As a result, the production costs are relatively lower than in China's other areas. Dalian also has the largest capital volume among all the cities in Northeast area. A dozen foreign-funded banks have set up branches and representative offices in Dalian.

To stay abreast of international high-technology trends and upgrade traditional industries, the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone recently prioritized the product lines that need foreign investment. The administrative committee of the development zone encourages foreign investors to apply new and high technologies in these areas: micro-electronics, new materials, biological engineering, information, communications, marine development, environmental protection, energy conservation and recycling. The committee wants these technologies to improve the following industries:

1. Light industries covering non-metal molds, die designs and manufacturing; leather finishing, new types of batteries, films for preservation, modern enzyme agents, synthetic spices and freon substitutes.

2. Mechanic industries that take precise CNC machine tools and components, petroleum, chemicals, electronics, telecommunications, marine port equipment, safety devices, environmental protection equipment, energy-saving equipment, new instruments, precise molds and dies, precise bearings, precise valves and automobiles and their components.

3. Electronics industries that produce integrated circuits, new electronic components, household appliances, satellite communications equipment, digital communications, multimedia systems, semiconductors and photo-electronics materials.

4. Petrochemical industries that make refined chemicals, engineering plastics and plastic alloy, synthetic rubber, equipment that treats waste gas and waste water, automobile exhaust cleaners and other cleaning agents.

5. Pharmaceutical industries that produce or make replacements for imported chemical medicines; medicines for cancer, cardiovascular diseases and cerebral diseases; vaccines for all types of hepatitis and new medicines developed by biological engineering technologies.

6. Construction-material industries that do new types of wall bricks, decorations, ornaments, waterproofing and insulating materials; high-grade sanitary ware and related plastic and metallic parts.

In addition, foreign firms are encouraged to invest in trade, tourism, infrastructure facilities and the upgrade of State-owned enterprises. (to be continued)
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Jiangxi Province in East China, one of the country's main grain producers, exported 390,000 tons of rice last year, nearly eight times as much as in 1997. The amount of grain export in 1997 was 50,000 tons. Among the grains shipped last year, 330,000 tons were destined to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cuba and other countries. Nearly one third of the rice came from Fuzhou Prefecture, a grain producing base of the province. Total exports of the province last year reached $1.65 billion, a sharp increase from the year before. Jiangxi earned credit among foreign traders for its timely and strict observance of agreements last year despite the worst floods in the century which caused some $4 billion economic losses.

Recently the province offered some projects for overseas cooperation.

1. New and high-tech agricultural development zone. Description: Planning to construct a high-tech park to raise snakes, produce dehydrated vegetables, mushrooms and sweet corn. Investment: 163.9 million yuan ($19.75 million). Form: Joint venture or cooperation.

2. Disposable tableware made of rice husks. Description: Planning to introduce fund and purchase equipment to extend the capacity of three product lines from one ton to 18 tons each, so that the annual output of the products will amount to 19,440 tons. Investment: 32.16 million yuan ($3,87 million). Form: Joint venture or cooperation.

3. Production of paper fast-food cases. Description: Expand the major workshops and purchase equipment for an increased annual production capacity of 400 million of paper fast-food cases. Investment: $12.05 million. Form: Joint venture, cooperation.

4. Industrialized development of pearl cultivation in Wannian County. Description: Enlarge the cultivatable area for pearls to 2,000 hectares, with an annual output of 100 tons of pearls; form a capacity of other aquatic products to 20,000 tons per year; produce 1 million bottles of pearl cosmetics. Investment: 374.8 million yuan ($45.16 million). Form: Joint venture, cooperation, or solely-invested enterprise.

5. Production of dairy cattle. Description: Raise 30,000 heads of dairy cattle with an annual output of 87,000 tons of fresh milk, and upgrade the HUT sterilized milk production line. Investment: $26.73 million. Form: Joint venture or cooperation.

6. Industrialized development of black-boned silky fowl. Description: To set up a black-boned silky fowl farm and a plant to raise 750,000 heads of the fowls per year; to set up a new production line for black-boned silky fowl products with an annual processing capacity of 30 million heads. Investment: 198.87 million yuan ($23.96 million). Form: Joint venture, cooperation or compensatory trade.

7. Industrialized development of Camellia oleosa products. Description: To increase a canning line of high-quality oil and a production line for soaking-out oil. To expand the Camellia oil production capacity to 10,000 tons per year, to expand the production capacity of liquid theasaponin to 3,500 tons per year. Investment: $30.58 million. Form: Joint venture, cooperation or compensatory trade.

8. Raising and processing of quality beef cattle. Description: To construct a beef cattle farm and a production line capable of processing 30,000 heads of cattle annually. Investment: 57.9 million yuan ($6.98 million). Form: Joint venture or cooperation.

9. Production of nylon-11 resin. Description: To expand the production of nylon-11 resin to an annual output of 2,000 tons. Investment: $23.3 million, including $10.48 million in foreign funds. Form: Joint venture.
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Officials of the Ministry of Communications have claimed that China will gradually give more freedom for investments for highway construction. Related State departments are formulating laws and regulations which will be soon put to effect to encourage foreign investment in this field. In the country's total transport means, highways account for 91.3% in passenger volume and 77.2% in cargo volume making construction of highways an increasingly important part in facilitating development of the national economy. By the end of 1998, the country had 1.26 million km of highways including 6,268 km of expressways ranking among top ten in the world with investment in highway construction increasing to RMB180 billion last year, up 50% over the plan, and further up 12% to 15% this year.

Foreign investment is encouraged to the field through: 1. Loans for investment may be legally sought from international financial institutions and foreign governments. At present, China's 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions already have built more than 9, 000 km of highways with $4.5 billion of loans from international financial organizations including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan, and governments of Kuwait and Spain. 2. Investment from foreign economic organizations is encouraged. Companies engaged in highway development and management may raise funds by ways of issuing stocks and bonds according to law and administrative regulations and rules. Regulations and rules to encourage foreign investment in building and managing highways, bridges and tunnels by means of BOT will be put into effect.

The right to collect fees for toll roads, which have been built or are under preparation for construction is allowed to be transferred to foreign economic organizations in accordance with the related State stipulations. Terms for toll collection should be decided upon reasonable investment retrieval and economic return. Approvals will be given according to State stipulations. After the operational period is expired the highways in sound technical state should be transferred to China's related communications departments free of charge.
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Quanzhou, a coastal city in Fujian Province, is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese and the main ancestral homes of the people of Han nationality now living in Taiwan. The original family home of about nine million or 44.8% of the Han nationality now living in Taiwan is Quanzhou. As the starting point of the ancient ”°marine silk road", Quanzhou was listed as one of the Chinese cities which were opened to the outside world.

Quanzhou city has now six pillar industries of textile, garment, head-wear and foot-wear, petro-chemicals, building-materials and cera-mics, food and drinks, construction and real estate and tourism and services and two priority-development industries of machinery and electronics. It ranks the 9th in Fujian Province in the total economic strength. The city fulfills about one-fourth of Fujian Province's major economic quota. From 1978 to 1997, the city's gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an average rate of 20.02% a year. In the first 11 months of 1998, the city's GDP was RMB76. 537 billion, 17.1% more than in the same period of the previous year. By the end of October, 1998, the city had approved the establishment of 6,930 foreign-funded enterprises with a total contracted foreign investment of $8.98 billion. At the same time, the city had actually utilized $4.757 billion of foreign funds.

Quanzhou city has greatly improved its infrastructural facilities. A three-dimensional transport network has taken shape. The city ranks the first in Fujian Province in the density of highways. Its highway arteries have all been widened and upgraded. All the villages in the city can be accessed through highways. Besides, the Zhangping-Quanzhou-Xiaocuo Railway which leads to Xiamen directly has initially open to traffic. The Jinjiang Airport at Quanzhou city has opened several air routes. The city has also built 20 docks which have a total annual handling capacity of 10.06 million tons.

Besides seriously carrying out the government policy of safeguarding the right and interests of investors both as home and abroad, Quanzhou city government also promulgated a series of preferential policies and measures and set up a related service and administration system according to the local conditions. All the procedures can be made in ”°one window" and the governmental departments will make promises in their services. Urgent things will be done in an urgent way. A city-level center for problems collected from the complaints of overseas investors have been set up. A system of government officials receiving overseas investors on holidays and weekends has also been established. Besides, all the problems discovered from the complaints of overseas investors will be solved within a set time.
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China's furniture industry has become a new growth area of the national economy. Output by the furniture industry grew from 1.3 billion yuan ($156 million) in 1978 to about 87 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in 1998, according to Jia Qingwen, president of the China National Furniture Association (CNFA). The development of China's furniture industry started in the mid-1980s, when cities in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province began to produce different varieties of furniture and sell them across the country. Hefty profits lured many people to engage in the furniture business. China now has more than 30,000 furniture companies, employing 2 million people.

Growing production has paralleled rising furniture sales. Beijing has 16 furniture centers each with floor space of more than 5,000 square meters. Shanghai has 15 furniture markets each with floor space of 10,000 square meters. In the coming 10 years, about 20 million people are expected to move into new houses each year. The spending on furniture for new bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms will surpass 100 billion yuan ($12 billion), according to CNFA. The industry boom was mainly a result of the improved living standards stemming from China's reform and opening policies. China is one of the world's largest furniture exporters. Despite being hard-hit by the Asian financial crisis, China's furniture exports grew 20% in 1998. The value of furniture exports to Southeast Asia, Japan, the Middle East and the United States reached $2.2 billion in 1998. China's furniture industry has a rosy future because of the strong demand from home and abroad. The country's furniture industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 10% in the coming years
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Shenzhen IBM Technology Products Co Ltd (ITP) officially began full-scale operation on October 8 in Shenzhen special economic zone. ITP is a wholly owned subsidiary of the US-based giant IBM. ITP began small-scale production on a trial basis in early 1998. With a cumulative investment of $45 million to date, ITP is IBM's largest investment project in China. The full operation of the giant project further demonstrates IBM's long-term commitment to transfer the latest technologies and valuable solutions to China. The new plant will specialize in the production and distribution of advanced information storage products and assembly, including magnetoresistive heads, head gimbal assemblies and head stack assemblies The new plant is expected to yield an annual output value of 12.5 billion yuan ($1.51 billion). IBM has made an investment of $70 million in Shenzhen over recent years and plans to further expanding investment in the special zone.
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The Shanghai Jinsheng Life Insurance Company, a Sino-French joint venture funded by the China National Metals and Minerals Import and Export Corporation and France's AXA Insurance Group, was recently inaugurated in Pudong of Shanghai. Under a registered capital of RMB200 million, the new company was registered in May and went into trial operation in the following month. The Chinese side holds 49% while the French side holds 51% of the stake. Sales of its first batch of insurance policies enjoyed a good reaction in the market. The company has started such businesses as pension insurance, whole-life insurance and personnel accident insurance.
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The AstraZeneca Co, a new firm born from the recent merger of leading drug manufacturers Astra and Zeneca, started its biggest Asian business on October 8 in Jiangsu Province. The new pharmaceutical factory will draw from $80 million in capital, company sources said. Covering 95,000 square meters, the new manufacturing base is expected to start production in 2002 and reach an annual sales volume of 1 billion yuan ($120 billion). Astra began doing business in Jiangsu in 1994, and its products have a firm foothold in China.
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Ericsson Company and Guangdong Mobile Telecommunication Co Ltd recently signed a $80 million GSM expansion contract. According to the contract, Ericsson will offer equipment and service to the Guangdong company's second-phase expansion of the digital mobile telecommunication network, scheduled to be started in November this year and be completed in the middle of 2000. After being completed, the network will be able to accommodate eight million mobile telephone users.
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