The local government has formally launched a website containing credit information on over 27,000 enterprises on April 1. Only one month after its opening, the website has attracted over 300,000 hits.

Clients, who intend to conduct economic and trade cooperation in Shantou, can visit the website to learn the credit ratings of their potential co-partners.

Clicking on the "red list", visitors can get favorable credit records of local enterprises; while in the "black list", they will take in all the bad records at a glance.

The first "black list" exposes over 200 enterprises involved in product counterfeiting, tax evasion and smuggling.

So far, the website has collected information on six categories of registered enterprises, including the basic introduction, management and finance, credit standing, honorable records as well as bad records.

It is estimated that the credit information of all the city's 100,000 enterprises will be put into the website database by the end of 2002.

Shantou previously suffered great economic losses because of a lack of economic confidence in credit ratings.

"A general atmosphere of honesty and credit-worthiness in economic activities is now prevailing throughout the city," said Huang Ronghan, deputy mayor of Shantou.

(People's Daily May 11, 2002)