Economist Hong Sheng, quoted by China Quality News on Monday, said that in the short term, the negative effect of SARS would be no worse than the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and would have no long-term effect.

He said that although overseas investments had been affected, projects would be delayed rather than canceled.

Maintaining steady development of the economy and preventing SARS were the most important issues facing the Chinese government.

Figures showed that China's economy continued to develop steadily. In April the growth rate of the national economy was 8.9 percent and foreign trade turnover hit US$70 billion, up 33.8 percent.

Beijing and Guangdong, both with a serious epidemic situation, saw economic growth, with the capital showing a growth rate of 12 percent in April.

SARS has negatively affected tourism and catering business, but some industries have benefited.

According to Monday's Information Times, the trade volume of the on-line bank of China Industrial and Commercial Bank's Guangdong branch office jumped to 100 billion RMB yuan (about US$12.1billion), doubling last year's figure.

E-commerce also saw huge opportunities. The trade volume of joyo.com, a popular Chinese e-commerce website, soared to 18 million RMB yuan, increased six-fold on the same period last year.

Wu Guanzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made an inspection tour of Shaanxi Province, northwest China, from May 14-19.

During the tour he called for a decisive victory in the war on SARS and maintaining sustained, rapid and healthy economic growth by carrying forward the revolutionary Yan'an Spirit.

Since May 9, the epidemic situation on the Chinese mainland has eased due to effective measures.

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Chinese mainland reported 12 new SARS cases, seven in Beijing, between 10:00 a.m. May 18 and 10:00 a.m. May 19, the lowest figure since the MOH began daily reporting to the press on April 20.

Meanwhile, unabated prevention work is carried on nationwide.

The Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Public Security issued a joint circular on Sunday ordering local transport and public security authorities to adopt tougher measures on illegal public transport.

A national system to record the movements of migrants has been set up in Changsha, capital city of Hunan Province. The network can collate information regarding migrants within two days, where earlier the work usually took more than one month.

By Sunday morning, 90 percent of the country's counties had begun to report information relating to migrants.

Today the State Post Bureau issued a stamp, commemorating the fight against SARS, showing the nation's determination to win the battle.

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2003)