Beijing also pooled more investment in social fixed assets and enjoyed improved retail sales of consumer goods, rising 23.4 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively, conference participants announced.

"Beijing's economic growth is mainly attributed to an investment stimulus," Beijing Mayor Liu Qi said at the conference to review the capital's economic performance for the first six months.

Having maintained a large volume increase and fast-speed progress, the real estate sector got the lion's share of the investment, he said.

By the end of June, the accumulated funds put into real estate reached 33.89 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion), 36.2 per cent higher than that of last year, and accounting for 55.2 per cent of the total social investment, statistics showed.

At the same time, high-tech industries also developed rapidly. The Zhongguancun area in particular, which is regarded as Beijing's Silicon Valley, turned over a 55 per cent increase in business tax compared with the same period last year.

Furthermore, the average cash income of urban and rural residents surged 16.2 per cent and 13.6 per cent to reach 6,256.5 yuan (US$754) and 3,342 yuan (US$400) respectively in the first half of the year.

Most surprisingly, local coffer continued to keep a double-digit growth - 25.1 per cent higher than the same period last year - to reach 27.2 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) in the first half of the year, Liu said.

Statistics also showed that exports, contractual foreign funds and foreign funds really in place increased 4.6 per cent, 30.4 per cent and 180 per cent respectively, compared with the same period last year.

(China Daily July 22, 2002)