While expected to help the coastal city better tap the abundant opportunities in the industry in the next two decades, the new firm is also expected to spark Shanghai's further efforts in restructuring local State-owned assets, top city officials said.

The new business, boasting assets of 15 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion), was created after a massive merger between Jinjiang (Group) Holding Co Ltd and Shanghai New Asia (Group) Co Ltd.

Featuring their hotel management operations, both State-owned companies were among China's top 10 enterprises in the industry in 2002, with Jinjiang ranking No 1 while New Asia came in 9th.

After the merger is completed, the new company will command a line-up of over 100 hotels nationwide as well as over 36,000 employees, thereby establishing its prominent position in the domestic hotel industry.

Besides the hotel business, Jinjiang International has targetted the catering service and tourist transport as its future core operations.

Yu Minliang, general manager of New Asia, will act as chairman of the new company, in which Shen Maosheng, president of Jinjiang, will take the post of executive president.

Details of the new firm's personnel organization as well as its ownership structure have not been made available.

"What the new company should aim for is not only the domestic market, but a much wider international market as well," Shanghai's Party Secretary Chen Liangyu said.

A big plus from the restructuring move is the way it will help optimize the allocation of related resources, especially for State-owned assets, to avoid overheated competition among domestic peers in the tourism service industry as it faces growing pressure from overseas rivals, Chen said.

The birth of Jinjiang International comes less than two months after the Shanghai government unveiled another business giant in the commercial sector, the Shanghai Bailian Group, by merging several of the city's leading State-owned commercial and logistics firms.

The city government should rebuild the management system of State-owned assets to ensure their efficiency, Wu Hongmei, vice-director of the Shanghai State Assets Administration Office, reportedly said.

(China Daily June 10, 2003)