Today's Shanghai | News(1997)

1997---February

China Shanghai '97 Spring Real Estate Exchange Fair will be held on March 1 to March 2 in Pudong New Area.

Businesses in Shanghai are bracing up to counter increasing competition and adapt to the market economy. One strategy of the Shanghai Commerce Commission is to encourage financially-strong enterprises to take over debt-ridden companies, rather than let them go into bankrupcy.

Foreign-funded English language schools are entering the city to pose a great challenge to the traditional way of language-teaching in China. Business-oriented English language schools for Chinese students include the Shanghai Changnin International School, English First, and the Sydney Business School.

Shang deputies to Chinese National People's Congress(NPC) arrived in Beijing on February 26 to attend the Fifth Plenary Session of the 8th of NPC, which opens on March 1.

Shanghai students studying abroad have turned out to bea vigorous source of investment. Analysts estimated that returning students are expected to open 10 businesses each month this year.

Local residents who acquired their houses under the traditional housing allocation system can now exchange them with other people.

High school enrollment in Shanghai will increase to 90 percent of middle school graduates by the year 2000, according to the municipality's education development program for the 1996-2000 period.

China has adopted new rules to allow travellers to take certain amount of foreign currency out of the country without declaring to the Customs. Starting from February 10, foreigners and overseas Chinese are allowed to take a maximum of $5,000 worth of foreign currency out of China.

An increasing number of suburban enterprises will be turned into shareholding companies to revatilize the local economy. Last year, 8,000 of the 19,790 suburban enterprises became shareholding companies.

97,102 overseas tourists visited Shanghai in January, a 12.8 increase from the same month last year.

Chain stores are flourishing in Shanghai. Now with 2,000 in operation and 1,000 more being planned, chain stores are becoming a driving force in Shanghai's brisk commercial development.

Pudong New Area is to introduce more flexible land supply policies to lower development costs and attract demostic and overseas investment.

Thirty-five industrial porjects were launched in Pudong's Jinqiao Export Processing Zone last year, with a total investment of $1.7 billion.

The memorial meeting for the late Deng Xiaoping is held on February 26. President Jiang Zemin gave a speech about the life experience of the great leader. At the same time, millions of Chinese people are watching or listening to the live memorial meeting.

Mator Xu Kuangdi urged local industries to produce more high value-added products and further market expansion this year.

The capacity of Shanghai's mobile telecommunications network is expected to almost double this year due to a contract between Siemens Shanghai Mobile Communications Ltd. and the Shanghai Post and Telecommunications Administration.

Shanghai People's Congress session, which ended Sunday, called for efforts to attain the goals for the year 1997 described in the report made by Major Xu Kuangdi. The goals are a 10 percent growth of gross domestic product, a 15 percent increase of industrial output value, an investment of 220 billion yuan ($26.5 billion) in fixed assets, a 6 percent increase in prices and a 10 percent rise in exports.

The municipal government will take new measures this year to invigorate the housing market. The city has more than 3.3 million square meters of vacant buildings waiting to be sold.

The booming economy and the pursuits of good life have tuned up the local flower market. According to Liberation Daily, 56,000 people purchase cut flowers regularly.

As the bowling business in Shanghai is booming, famous overseas and Chinese bowling equipment manufacturers are competing to enter the market this year. According to the statistics, by the end of 1996, there were more than 1,000 bowling alleys in Shanghai.

Xinghuo Development Zone attracted more than $300 million in foreign investment in 1996. 84 million yuan($10 million) has been put in place, 49 percent more than in 1995.

Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone is expected to boost the city's development of tertiary industry, Major Xu Kuangdi said. This year, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shanghai Talents and Job Market will be moved to Lujiazui, and preparations will be made to transfer the city's commodities, metal and technology trading markets.

After a sluggish year, the local gold market has recovered slightly since the central government lowered the gold price earlier this month.

China's inter-bank borrowing and lending of Renminbi got off to a strong start in the first month of 1997 amidst rising interest rates.

One of Shanghai's landmark structures--the Nanpu Bridge--is expected to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange(SSE) to raise funds for the city's continued infrastructure construction, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

Shanghai Municipal government abolished 38 fees for property development last week in hopes of bringing down the cost of urban housing.

One of the greatest leaders in China's modern history, Comrade Deng Xiaoping, died on the night of February 19. His death plunged the whole nation into deep sorrow. As the architect of China's reform and opening-up, Comrade Deng Xiaoping led the nation in its modernization drive, which has greatly improved the life of more than 1.2 billion Chinese. His death is an inretrievable loss to China and the world at large.

Comrade's Deng Xiaoping's memorial meeting will be held on February 25. Ten thousand people from all walks of life will attend the meeting at the Great People's Hall.

People throughout the nation are commemorating the late leader Comrade Deng Xiaoping through a variety of ways. Everyone is paying tribute to the paramount leader. The whole nation is immersed in deep sorrow and sadness.

After being constructed for several years, the Bund Financial Street has been formed preliminarily. Pudong and Puxi's economy will have a new leap in 1997.

Shanghai Vice-Mayor Feng Guoqin and some Women's Federation leaders visit laid-off workers and encourage them to remain active and productive.

A large-scale social activity was held by Shanghai Charity fund Committee. Thousands of students volunteered to collect donations from local citizens and tourists on Jan.25 at the city's major tourist spots and public places. About two million Yuan worth of aid from the local citizens reached the poor.

Spring Festival is coming. Many people will go back to spend festival with their family. It is one of the busiest traffic season in Shanghai.

Officials of the Shanghai Red Cross Society said the group will enroll 100,000 people in 1997. Last year, 3,3 million yuan worth of aid from the Shanghai Red Cross reached victims of accidents or natural disasters in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Jiangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan Provinces.

The city's northeastern Baoshan District has taken advantage of its favourable location to boost its manufacturing industry.

The Shanghai Branch of China Construction Bank recently signed a contract to import an IBM Mainframe computer to upgrade its electronic banking services and internal management.

The state Science and Technology Commission's Shanghai Training Centre project broke ground early this week in Pudong's Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park.

Shanghai Port will launch the second phase of its Waigaoqiao development this year, building three containers' ships berths at a cost of 2.1 billion yuan ($253 million).

Shanghai will launch 22 projects ranging from infrastructure works, postal services, agriculture, industry, commerce to culture and continue 18 others this year to push the city's economy forward in 1997.

The city this year will to offer comfortable homes to 15,000 households now living in less than 4 square metres per person. The project has become one of the city's 10 programmes to improve the quality of life for local residents in 1997.

Shanghai plans to replace petrol-powered mopeds with battery-run models to cut down on pollution.

The Pudong New Area Properties Market recently held a real estate fair in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, to promote "blue card" housing sales.

When foreign business began pouring into Shanghai in recent years, a large number of expatriate families came with them. Establishing schools for expat children has thus become another booming business in Shanghai.

The Shanghai City United Bank and the Hongkou district government last Friday agreed on how to finance the district's massive infrastructure construction in 1997.

Brilliant and booming Shanghai City greets the upcoming Spring Festival on Friday.

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