Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Tuesday urged the country's township enterprises to contribute more in building a new socialist countryside and forming a new pattern that integrates economic and social development in urban and rural areas.

Hui made his appeal in a congratulatory letter to a forum held in this eastern China's Wuxi city to mark and review the development of township enterprises in the last 30 years.

Since 1978 when China began the reform and opening-up program, township enterprises have risen to become a major part of the country's economy. They have made historic contributions in creating jobs for surplus rural work forces, increasing farmers' income and bringing prosperity to rural areas, he said in the letter.

Township enterprises should implement the Scientific Outlook on Development and take active measures in coping with changing international and domestic economic situations in order to achieve sound and fast development, he said.

The forum, held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Jiangsu provincial government, was attended by officials, experts and more than 300 township entrepreneurs.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Agriculture showed by June this year China had more than 238,000 major township enterprises with an annual sales volume of five million yuan each (about US$730,000).

In the first half, the country's township enterprises generated 3.89 trillion yuan in value-added output, a growth of 11.62 percent over the same period last year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2008)