Statistics from Shanghai Customs show that local private businesses contributed exports worth US$50.1 million, 2.4 times that of the same period last year.

The number of private firms conducting export businesses also surged from just 34 last year to 144 today, statistics show.

Exports by local private businesses were largely in clothing and agriculture, but they also covered aquatic products, furnishings, traveling facilities and other categories.

The city's private firms also contributed to the local taxation.

In the city's booming Pudong New Area, the largest habitat for the city's private enterprises, tax payments by the private sector there in the first half of this year saw a high growth rate of 75 per cent over the same period last year, compared with an increase of 37 percent by those foreign-funded enterprises and 58 per cent by listed companies.

The number of private businesses in Shanghai has increased by 26 per cent a year on average since 1996, local media reported.

Shanghai Customs officials said more than 30,000 new private firms have been set up in Shanghai so far this year.

The number of private businesses in the city now exceeds 205,000.

These businesses have a registered capital of 226 billion yuan (US$27.3 billion) and employ 2 million people, officials said.

These businesses have shifted part of their focus from traditional industries to the high-tech, consulting and insurance sectors, local media also reported.

One third of the private firms in Shanghai were founded by Chinese graduates returning from abroad or investors from other provinces.

Since March, Shanghai officials removed a series of limitations on the registration of private enterprises and their accession to the international trade.

The scale of Shanghai's private sector ranked third among provinces nationwide, Xinhua News Agency reported in May.

The top two were Guangdong Province in south China and Zhejiang Province in east China.

(China Daily August 9, 2002)