Private enterprise in Shanghai is developing at a monthly rate of 5,000. According to Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, private enterprises in Shanghai have reached 236,695 with over 2.6 million practitioners by the end of February -- an increase from 224,662 enterprises and 2.5 million practitioners at the end of last year.

The municipal administration said private enterprises with registered capital of over 100 million yuan (US$12 million) have reached 182 in Shanghai. The registered capital of Shanghai Maosheng Development Co. Ltd alone has reached 1 billion yuan (US$120 million). There are 4,418 enterprises with a registered capital of over 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million). Their total volume of production and marketing has reached 301.64 billion yuan (US$36.43 billion) and with revenue surpassing 15.579 billion yuan (US$1.881 billion) in 2002.

Except for finance, excavation and some industries which are obviously prohibited by the state, private enterprise has now the opportunity to end many years of state domination of large scale monopoly shareholding. For example, Shanghai Fuxi Investment Co. Ltd has bought the management controlling rights for a 30-year period on the Shanghai section of the Shanghai to Hangzhou expressway; China Junyao Group Co. Ltd has become a shareholder in civil aviation; Shanghai Youlian Enterprise Development Company made a successful bid in the domestic investment of Zhuyuan Sewage Treatment Factory - the largest sewage treatment factory in Shanghai; Boai Hospital, Renai Hospital and Mujia Hospital have all entered into the medical market. In addition, private enterprise is now seen in many other industries including bio-agriculture; production of film and TV programs; chained bookstore and elevator manufacture.

Shanghai has become a city with the most private foreign-trade enterprises in China. According to the municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Commission, once Shanghai relaxed its trade requirements for private enterprise and put applications online in July 2002, numbers began to increase. By the end of 2002, there were 1,980 private enterprises active in import and export, when in 2001, there had only been 233 private foreign-trade enterprises in Shanghai.

In a recently released list of China's top 100 private enterprise taxpayers, 21 were from the private sector in Shanghai -- accounting for one-fifth of the top 100 taxpayers in the nation. The return of overseas professionals has sharpened the competitive edge of private enterprise in the science and technology sectors too. At present, there are 312 confirmed hi-tech enterprises in Shanghai.

(China.org.cn translated by Wang Qian, March 27, 2003)