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- December, 1998
- November, 1998
- October, 1998
- September, 1998
- August, 1998
- July, 1998
- June, 1998
- May, 1998
- April, 1998
- March, 1998
- February, 1998
- January, 1998
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1998---June
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The President of the United
States, William Clinton, arrived at Xi'an on June
25. Mr. Clinton is on a 9-day state visit to China.
He will also visit Shanghai after his trip to Beijing.
Shanghai's pharmaceutical
industry is attracting more investment than ever
before. Since the beginning of last year, more than
US$193 million have been invested in the industry.
Party Secretary Huang Ju
has encouraged enterprises to donate money for the
establishment of 20 Project Hope primary schools
in Yunnan Province. Project Hope is a non-governmental
effort that aims to provide aids to poor students
throughout the country.
A recent survey indicates
that local residents spend less time in the kitchen.
They tend to buy prepared food or cook-chilled food.
An international telecommunications
show opens at Shanghai Mart on June 24 as part of
China's drive to expand its information industry.
More than 200 manufacturers worldwide will display
their newest products.
Textile manufacturers in
Shanghai are actively adopting new technologies
to add value to their products. However, many encounter
problems in doing so.
China's top supplier of
accounting software, Shenzhen Kingdee Software,
will provide software solutions for more small-
and medium-sized State enterprises in Shanghai this
year at the request of the Ministry of Finance.
The city's top decision-makers
are confident that they can meet this year's targeted
economic growth rate despite a snail-paced growth
at the beginning months.
Local manufacturers are
playing an ever-increasing role in developing the
city's foreign trade. So far, more than 500 manufacturing
companies in Shanghai has obtained export rights.
Despite the Asian financial
crisis, many foreign businesses are still investing
in the city's Songjiang Industrial Zone as part
of their strategy to expand their business in China.
Senior Chinese officials
reiterated in Beijing that the Chinese renminbi
will not be devalued. The statement was made on
June 22.
A photo book containing
the photos of President Jiang Zemin's 5-day visit
to the U.S. last year has been published in Shanghai.
It is now hitting the bookstores throughout the
city.
The United States has become
Shanghai's second largest trading partner and the
second largest investing country. About 20 American
multinationals have set up their offices in the
city.
Shanghai ranks the first
in GDP among provinces, municipalities and special
regions nationwide. It comes third among the country's
megacities.
Local residents are having
a wider selection of water melons to choose from.
Many new varieties either from the neighboring provinces
or from Taiwan or Japan are being sold on the market.
Eight of every 100 Shanghai
residents have a mobile at the end of May, pushing
the total number of mobile phones to 1 million.
The Shanghai History Museum
will bid farewell to its temporary venue in western
Hongqiao area and finally move into its permanent
home in Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a landmark sight
of the city.
Local residents are responding
quickly to a recent government decision allowing
them to trade the use rights of publicly-owned apartments
without kitchens and toilets.
Regal Shanghai East Asia
Hotel, a four-star property managed by the Hong
Kong-based Regal Hotels International, announced
its grand opening on June 18.
Though traditional chemical
medicines still account for the larger proportion
of the local medicine market, bio-medicines are
showing its great potential as more than US$192
million has been invested in the industry.
Fengxian County will increase
its economy by 15.4% annually to reach a GDP of
US$1.24 billion in the year 2000, local officials
predict.
ChinaPhoto '98, an international
exhibition featuring digital cameras, opened at
the Shanghai International Exhibition Center on
June 18.
Cross the Atlantic Ocean--President
Jiang Zemin's U.S. Visit in 1997, a movie featuring
President Jiang's visit to the United States last
year, is being premiered in Shanghai.
University students in Shanghai
often complains about sharing a dorm with seven
other fellow students. A city-wide effort to built
apartment buildings for university students will
reduce the number of roommates to four. The project
is expected to be completed by the year 2000.
As more and more foreign-invested
enterprises flocked into Caohejing Hi-Tech Park,
the area has become a new profit center. Besides,
it is the most populated so far as high-tech enterprises
are concerned.
A recent survey revealed
that 81.4% of local residents think that TV ads
are the most successful to get across its intended
message to consumers.
Forty multinationals have
set up their China headquarters in Shanghai, according
to the Shanghai Foreign Investment Commission. They
include Kodak, Coca-Cola, Inland, Allied-Signal,
GE, Gillette, Philips, Roche, Bayer, Unilever, and
so on.
The efforts to control an
explosive population in Shanghai are paying off
as the city now registers a low birth rate, low
death rate and low population growth rate.
The State Development and
Planning Commission has approved a proposal for
the first-phase project-- which is expected to cost
more than US$964 million--to harness Suzhou Creek.
The worn-out Lu Xun Museum,
built in 1956, closed its doors to visitors on June
8 for a renovation project which will increase its
area to 5,000 square meters.
Shanghai's municipal government
announced 24 policies recently to encourage enterprises
from other parts of the country to invest in the
city.
The world's biggest elevator
manufacturer--Otis--hopes to increase sales in Shanghai
by building slower, smaller elevators.
Italian President Oscar
Luigi Scalfaro visited Shanghai on June 12. Mr.
Scalfaro arrived in Beijing on June 8 in a six-day
state visit to China.
China's currency will remain
stable in spite of mounting pressure on the country's
exports caused by the recent devaluation of the
Japanese yen.
In the next 20 years, Shanghai's
population will grow older and the city will have
a smaller proportion of children, according to a
local demographer.
June 5 is International
Environment Day. Mayor Xu Kuangdi said in a televised
speech on June 4 that the government will make more
environmental efforts to achieve sustainable economic
development.
As the summer approaches,
local experts are suggesting that fee-for- service
should be adopted in the garbage-collecting industry.
Pudong authorities are launching
a campaign to clear up illegal buildings that house
small street-side businesses or stalls.
Local universities are planning
to enroll as many as 27,123 freshmen this year.
Among them, 5,847 are students of arts and 21,276
students of sciences.
Boutiques are becoming a
familiar sight on the streets of Shanghai. Almost
half of the stores at Sichuan (N) Road are boutiques
of a sort. They usually feature world-famous and
locally brand-names.
More than 90 percent of
farmers in Shanghai's suburbs are now benefiting
from the local medical-care security system.
The city is launching a
campaign to crack down on smuggling. In the first
four months this year, local authorities uncovered
112 smuggling cases involving US$15.4 million.
Shanghai is planning the
third phase of its largest sewerage project to support
the cleanup drive of Suzhou Creek. The project will
handle 1.7 million cubic meters of sewage.
Shanghai Mayor Xu Kuangdi
stressed on June 3 that Shanghai should get everything
ready for the purchasing and retailing of the summer
harvest of grain, a timely response to a central
government meeting on the issue.
Although the month-long
Shanghai International Festival of Arts ended on
the last day of May, the clapometer for its success
still seems to be cracking.
Local experts are calling
for firm efforts to bring vehicle exhaust emission
under control. With 654,000 vehicles and 500,000
mopeds, the city consumes 1.1 million tons of gasoline
every year.
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