Current Events

·Eastern Chinese Province Getting Rid of Snail Fever

·China to Select National Stone

·Expressways in East China Province Ready for Traffic

·Chinese Costumes Exhibition Opens in Quebec City

·Central China Resort Opens Eco-tour Festival

·Chinese Bank Raises 1.8b Francs for Shanghai Rail System

Economy

·Qinghai Reports Rapid Economic Growth

·China in Great Need of MBAs

·Shanghai Auto Industry Facing Challenges

·Multinationals Increasing Investment in China

·China to Issue Treasury Bonds

·Historic Relics Found in Southwest China

·China Publishes Gold Book of Confucius Work

·First Phase Of Garment Fair Clinched A Trade Volume Of 4.16 Billion Yuan

SHANGHAI, September 22 (Xinhua) -- A packed agenda has been finalized for the upcoming '99 Fortune Global Forum, slated for September 27-29 at Shanghai International Convention Center.
Participants at the business conference on September 27 will discuss the current economic situation in China and the influence of the country's development trend on multinationals under the topic "What Now for China?"
At the first general assembly on September 28, heads of international giants, including chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Douglas Ivester, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble Durk Jager, and president of China's Haier Group, will deliver speeches during a discussion of how China will affect multinationals' global and Asian strategies as well as their investment policies.
Afterwards, CEOs of some multinationals will take part in two group discussions, "The Global Entertainment Industry" and "Energy and the Environment."
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will make a speech during lunch.
During the afternoon session, Minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission of China Zeng Peiyan will give a brief presentation on China's development plan and will take questions from the audience.
The representatives will then discuss issues of China's future under the topic of "Building New China: Now Comes the Hard Part."
The third symposium, which will begin at 4 p.m., will feature a discussion on electronic commerce.
In the evening, Mayor of Shanghai Xu Kuangdi will host a banquet with performances for the international guests.
Another assembly will be held on the morning of September 29, during which companies with huge investment in China will share their strategies and experiences in the world's largest market.
Following that will be a symposium on entrepreneurship and the fourth assembly for the discussion of globalization of China's financial sector.
The fifth gathering will be in the afternoon, following a symposium on "Writing About the Developing World," with John Welch. Jr., Chairman and CEO of General Electric, making a speech on " Global Excellence." Former US Secretary of Finance Robert Rubin will also make his speech as a special guest.
The closing ceremony is scheduled for the afternoon of September 29.

Eastern Chinese Province Getting Rid of Snail Fever

HANGZHOU, September 22 (Xinhua) -- Snail fever used to claim the lives of tens of thousands of people each year in Zhejiang Province, east China, but not a single case has been found in the past eight years.
Over the past 50 years, some two million people suffering from snail fever have been cured of the disease in the province and 600 square kilometers of land have been cleared of oncomelania, a fresh water snail that is the intermediate host of the blood fluke that causes the disease.
Snail fever, or schistosomiasis, can cause severe organ damage if it goes untreated, and victims suffer from liver, urinary, lung, and nervous system disorders.
The World Health Organization reports that there are over 200 million people worldwide affected by the disease.
Zhejiang began a massive campaign in 1955 as part of a national effort to eliminate the disease. To check the spread of snail fever, local people changed most rural lavatories and replaced 80 percent of the rural wells with tap water. Special research institutes were also set up in the cities of Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Quzhou, and other areas that have many rivers and lakes, to study the disease.

China to Select National Stone

GUNZHOU, September 22 (Xinhua) -- Six kinds of beautiful stone, one of which will be selected as China's national stone, will be on display at the '99 Guangdong International Jewelry and Rare Stone Exposition slated here next month.
The six types of stone, Hetian Jade, Dushan Jade, Youyan Jade, Changdai Bloodstone, Shoushan Stone, and Qingtian Stone, were selected by stone experts at a meeting earlier last month.
The criteria for the national stone are that it should have a long history, is loved by the Chinese people at home and abroad, and has commercial prospects, according to the stone experts.
They said that although China has many rare stones, it does not have a national stone, which is considered as important as a national flower in many countries.
The stone exposition set for October 16-20 in Guangzhou will provide detailed introductions of the six stones to allow more people to participate in selecting the national stone.

Expressways in East China Province Ready for Traffic

NANJING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- Two major expressways are open to traffic soon in the developed coastal province of Jiangsu, east China, after two years of construction.
The expressways links the cities of Taixing and Jingjiang, and Wuxi and Jiangyin, respectively. The Taixing-Jingjiang expressway is 18.2 kilometers long and the Wuxi-Jiangyin expressway is 35 kilometers long. The six-lane expressways will have speed limits up to 120 km/h.
With a total investment of 175 million yuan, these expressways are parts of the country's national expressway system.

Chinese Costumes Exhibition Opens in Quebec City

QUEBEC City, September 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Costumes Exhibition opened here late Tuesday to unveil the China Month in the Canadian city.
Colorful costumes of 56 Chinese nationalities are put on display for the first time in the city exhibition hall at Plais Montcalm, attracting visitors who desire to know more about Chinese culture.
Quebec City and the northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an have become twin cities and the exhibition will be a step to improve the links between Quebec City and other Chinese cities, Municipal Counselor Claude Larose said at the opening ceremony.
Madame Ndeye Fall, Director of UNESCO office in Canada, expressed thanks to China for bringing the valuable exhibits to Quebec City, saying the exhibition will allow Canadians to sense Chinese culture from inside their hearts.
Also on display in the hall are replicas of ancient Chinese porcelain and ceramic works as well as some Chinese paintings. Chinese films will be screened along with a number of video programs featuring the ancient nation.
China Month is jointly launched by Quebec City, the UNESCO office in Canada and the Chinese Embassy to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 10th anniversary of the opening of the UNESCO office in Canada.

Central China Resort Opens Eco-tour Festival

CHANGSHA, September 22 (Xinhua) -- An international forest protection festival opened today at the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, in central China's Hunan province.
International symposiums on environmental protection and eco- tours will be held during the six-day event, along with exhibitions of paintings, photos and souvenirs featuring Zhangjiajie's landscape and culture.
The festival is expected to attract more than 3,000 experts on environmental protection and forestry as well as tourists from at home and abroad.
Located in northwestern Hunan Province, Zhangjiajie is famous for its beautiful scenery. China's first national park was established there in 1982.
The scenic site is also listed among the World Natural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
By the end of 1998, the city of Zhangjiajie had received more than 14 million visitors from around the world.

Chinese Bank Raises 1.8b Francs for Shanghai Rail System

SHANGHAI, September 22 (Xinhua) -- The Construction Bank of China (CBC) has reached agreement with two French banks for the relending of 1.8 billion Francs in mixed loans from the French government to a rail transport system in Shanghai, CBC officials said.
According to the agreements signed today between CBC and the Banque Francaise du Commerce Exterienur and the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP), respectively, the loans would be used for the purchase of locomotives and coaches from the French company Alstom.
The CBC officials said this is the largest Sino-French co- operation project involving an urban rail transport system and the first mass export of French rail coaches and locomotives to China.
The planned urban rail line runs 24.97 kilometers south-north in Shanghai, from Caohejing in the southwest to Jiangwan town in the northeast. It will have 19 stations.
The system is expected to cost 8.6 billion yuan.

LANZHOU, September 22 (Xinhua) -- The expansion of fixed assets is expected to promote the economic growth of northwest China's Gansu Province.
The province invested 14.13 billion yuan in fixed assets in the first seven months this year, up more than 30 percent over the corresponding period last year, according to the latest statistics.
These funds were used to build agricultural and water-control facilities and power stations and roads, officials said.
As a result, the industrial added value of the province's state- owned enterprises and large private companies reached 9.35 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 6.44 percent on a yearly basis.
A provincial plan calls for a total investment of 38 billion yuan in fixed assets this year, up 15 percent from 1998.

Qinghai Reports Rapid Economic Growth

XINING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- The economy has been growing rapidly in northwest China's Qinghai Province over the past 50 years.
The province's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 22.04 billion yuan in 1998, a 42-fold increase over that of 1949 in real terms, and the per capita GDP rose 12-fold since then, to 4,372 yuan last year.
Qinghai has become one of China's important energy and chemical industry bases. The Qaidam oil field is now the fourth-largest of its kind in China, and more than 20,000 tons of chemical products from Qinghai are sold to customers worldwide.
The province had only two small power stations with a combined generating capacity of one million kwh in 1949; at present, more than 100 electric power stations in the province produce more than seven billion kwh of electricity a year.
Qinghai now has more than 20,000 industrial enterprises with total assets of 51.9 billion yuan, compare with 15 small factories in 1949.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army marched into Qinghai and overthrew the rule of Ma Bufang, a Kuomintang warlord, in September 1949.

China in Great Need of MBAs

TIANJIN, September 20 (Xinhua) -- With nearly 10,000 MBA graduates each year, China is still in great need of these talented people, according to a MBA (Master of Business Administration) seminar held in Tianjin Municipality in north China.
Over the past seven years, Chinese universities have granted the MBA degree to 14,166 students, and thousands of people have attended related courses in 56 experimental universities, according to the seminar.
China's demand for MBAs is ten times the current 10,000 who graduate each year, and this has attracted many Chinese students to enroll in foreign universities.
The MBA education, which began ten years ago in China, has become one of the driving forces for innovation in China's enterprises and is becoming more so nationwide.
Entrepreneurs attending the seminar believe that with the development of China's market economy and its globalization, the demand for MBAs will continue to increase and those with this credential will remain a powerful component for economic advancement.

Shanghai Auto Industry Facing Challenges

SHANGHAI, September 22 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group) will face the challenges of a global automotive industry in a positive manner, the group's president Hu Maoyuan said on the eve of the '99 Fortune Forum to be held here September 27-29.
As China's largest automobile producer, the corporation sold 230,000 Satana-brand cars in 1998. Its profit stood at 5.52 billion yuan (665 million US dollars) and sales income at 74.9 billion yuan (9 billion dollars), accounting for 33 percent and 9. 4 percent of the country's automotive industry, respectively, according to Hu.
At present, the automotive industry is the No.one pillar industry of Shanghai.
"It was the reform and opening policy that provided the opportunity for the rapid development of the Shanghai automotive industry," said the president.
In the past two decades, Hu said, Shanghai's car output rose 100-fold, sales income increased at an annual average rate of 28 percent, and profit increased at an annual rate of 30 percent.
Shanghai has established 33 overseas-funded automotive enterprises in cooperation with Germany, the United States, Japan, Italy, France, and five other countries and regions during the past 10 years.
Despite this remarkable progress, Hu Maoyuan said that there is still a long way to go for the Shanghai automotive industry, which began far behind the world's large automotive enterprises.

Multinationals Increasing Investment in China

BEIJING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- In recent years there has been more systematic investment by multinationals in China that has had an important bearing on China's economic development.
By the end of 1998, many of the world's best known business giants, especially in the manufacturing field, had invested in China, and up to now more than 300 of the Fortune 500 have invested here.
Advanced technology and management techniques plus more competitive products are the key factors in the success of multinationals in China. Many had been in the Chinese market before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
After China adopted its reforms and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, multinationals gradually began returning to China. In the 1980s though, there were still not very many. Only Germany's Volkswagen, Japan's Sanyo, and a few other giants began large- scale investment, while others made trial investments on a trial basis, according to China's Institute of International Economic Cooperation and Trade.
As the reforms and opening-up increased, China began shifting from a big potential markets to a more realistic one and international corporations began to regard China as a more attractive investment site, according to the Institute's Wang Zhile.
Their experiences in investment in the 1980s helped them to introduce more systematic investment in the 1990s. Since 1993, the multinationals have continued to make investment on a large scale.
The multinationals have used trade and technology cooperation to gradually put China in their global business network, Wang says.
The big companies have invested in China for long-term strategic interests and have made long-term development strategies and detailed plans in China for choice of projects, partners, and location.
How to consolidate their hold in China has become a major problem of multinationals, Wang says, and to ensure success in China, they have implemented a localization strategy in recent years.
So many multinationals entering into a country in such a short time was unprecedented, Wang points out, and their presence has led to intense competition in China, something that will push the globalization of China's economy further faster.
With the improvements in the investment environment here and more favorable policies, more multinationals are expected to come to China.

China to Issue Treasury Bonds

BEIJING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- China is to issue 36 billion yuan worth of treasury bonds in two batches on Thursday.
The first batch of T-bonds are worth 16 billion yuan, with a maturity term of two years. These bonds are to be sold only to state-owned commercial banks and financial institutes. They will not be sold to individual investors.
The second batch of the T-bonds have a total value of 20 billion yuan and a maturity term of ten years. They can be bought by individual and corporate investors. The T-bonds will be traded at stock exchanges in the country.

Historic Relics Found in Southwest China

CHONGQING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archeologists have found an abundance of historic relics recently, dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1000 to 771 B.C.) and the Jin Dynasty (265- 420), in Chongqing Municipality.
The relics were unearthed from Shuangyantang, a 100,000-sq m historical ruins in Wushan County. In the early 1990s, many rare and ancient articles such as bronze ceremonial instruments were excavated from the site.
The new find was discovered at a 125-sq m area of the site, and includes items of pottery, bone, iron and bronze. The pottery was made of sand and mud and is carved with a variety of decorative patterns such as meshwork and spinning wheels.
At the same time, a number of ancient tombs were unearthed at a 700-sq m area of the site. Hundreds of pieces of pottery, bronze, iron, glass and lead articles were unearthed from the tombs. The pottery items include jars, kettles, lamp holders and tomb figures featuring diversified action of people with musical instruments.
The rarest relics are gold-plated silver and bronze coins, which regained their gold luster after the surface rust was removed.
The historical relics will provide valuable material for the study of the history, culture, and burial customs of the area's ancient dynasties.

China Publishes Gold Book of Confucius Work

JINAN, September 22 (Xinhua) -- Printed on gold paper, an edition of the Analects of Confucius has been published to mark the 2,550th anniversary of the birth of the great Chinese thinker, philosopher and educator of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.).
The publishers are the China Confucius Foundation, the International Confucianism Association, the Xinhua Publishing House, the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization, and the Confucius Museum in Qufu City, hometown of Confucius in Shandong Province, east China.
Some 2,550 copies of the gold edition, first of its kind in China, are available for domestic and overseas readers, and each copy has 24 pages, according to one publisher.
This gold edition was created by employing high-tech developments in paper-making and printing techniques, the publisher said.
With a purity over 99.9 percent, the gold paper can withstand oxidation, the color will not fade, and it is waterproof and mothproof, he said.
The Analects contains the heart and the soul of Confucius' philosophy. The gold edition also includes calligraphy by a dozen modern domestic and overseas artists, scholars, and descendants of Confucius, including Kong Demao, Zhao Puchu and Shen Peng.
There also is a gold-badge Confucius image, the creation of He Baosen, a renowned Chinese artist famous for his Mao Zedong badges.
Some additional Confucius sayings on determination and virtue and morality are also included in this new edition.
The gold book is not only a cultural masterwork, but also a high-tech product, said Liu Weihua, vice-chairman of the China Confucius Foundation.
The Analects is a true record of the saying of Confucius, and after 2,000 years the philosophy of Confucianism remains the core of traditional Chinese culture.
It is one of the oldest works of philosophy in the world, Liu said.

SHANGHAI, September 22 (Xinhua) -- With a world-class information system, Shanghai's new Pudong International Airport is able to provide efficient services for passengers worldwide.
The new airport, which has been opened for one week, imported computer application software from a dozen international companies including Siemens of Germany, Fujitsu and Kawasaki Heavy Industries of Japan, and IBM and Unisys of the United States.
Using these applications, Wanda, a Shanghai-based information company, engineered and designed the system. This system has 50 branch networks for flight information management and display, luggage management and check-in, take-off control, information broadcasting, ground services, and seat assignments.
With a handling capacity of 20 million passengers and 750,000 tons of cargo annually, the airport's information system will greatly increase efficiency and service for both airlines and passengers.

First Phase Of Garment Fair Clinched A Trade Volume Of 4.16 Billion Yuan

The first phase of the 11th Dalian Int'l Garment Exhibition Fair was closed yesterday afternoon, clinching a record high trade volume of 4.16 billion yuan, among which 2.4 billion yuan goes to domestic trade and 210 million US dollars goes to imp. and exp. trade.
Some 50 thousand businessmen and industrial insiders are involved in the five-day exhibition fair.
The second phase will open in Sept. 23 and last till 27.

BEIJING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- There are not many people in this world who would celebrate their own misfortunes, past or present, but Dai Shu, now a highly experienced pet veterinarian, does.
For Dai, now 31, his teenaged dream was to work for an outlet of the China Agricultural Bank like the one in his town in the remote border area of southwest China, as he marveled at its bright and elegant working environment and an easy way to make chunks of money, compared with his parents who herded sheep on the mountain top and grew rice at the foot of the mountains.
He opted to study agricultural economy when applying to enter the Beijing Agricultural University (BAU) in 1986 to realize his dream. But he never expected that he would eventually be enrolled in the department of veterinarian science.
Today, he openly expresses his luck.
He now operates his own clinic, not catering to horses or cows like the animals he studied in his university days, but rather cats and dogs and even birds and tortoises.
To find customers, he has publicized his clinic on a weekly Internet magazine. He also has his own web page (http://www. beijingvet.com.cn/) and frequently checks his e-mail at ( beijingvet@263.net).
At the time Xinhua visited his clinic, he was transfusing some liquid into a little white dog who looked rather weary and dirty. To prevent the dog from biting people, Dai, a member of the 1.6- million-strong Bai ethnic group form Dali in Yunnan Province, put a lampshade-like plastic device around its neck. A young woman dressed in a short skirt excitedly kept briefing him and Xinhua one after another about her dear little dog.
Dai's mobile phone also beeped several times in the process. He sometimes talked in quick, highly accented Putonghua, or Mandarin Chinese, and sometimes in fast and fluent English.
Dai said that he offers round-the-clock services and in urgent cases like a dog vomiting blood, he leaves his home or his clinic without hesitation. But his fees are probably among the highest in Beijing. For a dog, he charges 100 yuan just for a checkup, and he treats three to five dogs and cats a day, and also spends a lot of time offering free consultations by phone.
Dai boasts of techniques for treating skin and eye diseases for cats and dogs as well as ailments associated with aging, thanks to his one and a half year's of study in the US beginning in September of 1996. These diseases are rarely mentioned in textbooks of animal diseases in China.
He said the most of his cases involve the sterilization of cats and dogs. These animals must be sterilized because then they will live longer, he said.
He said he also felt lucky to be treating animals because they don't cover up their true feelings.
"A dog can instantly become active when I insert needles into him," he said. "For humans, a doctor might be able to detect responses from their faces even though they might be feeling much better. A human is subject to strong psychological influences."
He treats pet animals not only in line with Western disciplines but also uses acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines.
He happily told Xinhua that he has just published a book on treating bird diseases and that he is still working on a book compiling pictures of all cats and dogs that have ever existed.
While he has greatly improved his fortunes by working as a pet vet, he has also introduced this work to his sisters, who otherwise would be working in the fields back home. One of his younger sisters now works in a Hong Kong pet shop as a beautician. She comes each Wednesday to her brother's pet clinic to beautify dogs and cats. Dai's other younger sister has just joined him 11 days ago.
Dai said, "I asked her to come to Beijing to take a look (at this national capital). Also I want to know if she can develop an interest in caring for pets."
His second younger sister has a dark brown face and appears rather shy in front of strangers. Raising his bespectacled fair- skinned face, Dai said, "I look exactly like her when I first arrived in Beijing."
Dai said that his experience treating pets goes back more than 12 years, when, as a sophomore, he earned 1.5 yuan for a night shift in the veterinary hospital attached to the BAU.
After completing his bachelors and masters degrees, he remained to work in the hospital until March this year. He first operated a pet clinic with a partner, and recently decided to have his own. A woman entrepreneur who has 16 dogs, also his long time customer, offered him two rooms in her spacious yard and equipped it with all the necessary equipment, tailor-made to his 1.69-m height.
Dai said that keeping pets has become a growing fad for the expanding newly rich in China. "In 1989, the BAU veterinary hospital treated five or six cats and dogs a day as compared with three to four horses and cows," he recalled. "Now, the hospital treats only one or two horses a month, but treats between 30 and 40 cats and dogs a day."
Fees ranged from three to four yuan for a cat and seven to eight yuan for a dog ten years ago. Now these charges have grown ten-fold, he noted.
He said that the development of the pet trade owes a debt of gratitude to the sustained development of the economy. In addition, with the Chinese population now aging, the unique "one child, four old people" family pattern also greatly propels the pet trade.
Dai also has his own two pets, one dog and one cat. He named his dog "Benben," a common name Beijingers give their dogs, and his cat is named "Barbie," an American name. The two animals were both orphans left behind in his clinic by their masters.

Moon cake dealers take hard look at bottom line

THE last Mid-Autumn Festival of this century will be celebrated tomorrow.
But while friends and relatives are relaxing and enjoying each other's company, manufacturers of moon cake, the festival's centrepiece, will be worrying about their bottom lines.
A recent survey indicates moon cake dealers will not profit as much this year as last from their sales.
The survey, conducted by Horizon, a company that conducts market research, public opinion surveys and polls, indicates citizens will spend less money on moon cakes than the dealers had expected.
Moon cakes are purchased to celebrate the Chinese traditional festival which symbolizes the reunion of families.
According to a random sampling of 306 residents in southern Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, moon cake spending will be about 353 yuan (US$42.5) per person this year, 27 yuan (US$3.3) less than last year.
Those interviewed said they plan to spend 69.28 yuan (US$8.31) per moon cake gift package, which can be a single large moon cake or a package containing numerous small moon cakes.
Most of those interviewed said they would buy moon cakes, according to the survey.
A Miss Chen, who declined to give her full name, spent half an hour selecting a delicately packaged moon cake at a moderate price of 80 yuan (US$9.64). She said the moon cake was bought to show her gratitude to a friend who had helped her.
The survey reported 51.3 per cent of the consumers use moon cakes as gifts for relatives and friends. Only 16.4 per cent reported they would buy moon cakes for themselves.
Last year's survey, conducted among 5,673 interviewees, 18 years of age or older in 11 large cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, indicated moon cakes still function well as a tie that strengthens relations between family members, relatives and friends. This is reiterated in this year's study.
Nearly half the interviewees said they considered a moon cake's flavour first when choosing one.
Manufacturers produce various kinds of moon cakes to cater to local tastes.
In Guangdong the traditional stuffings include fruit, sweet bean pastes, sweet sliced pork and egg yolks as well as some new kinds with pork, fish and shark's fin as stuffing.
Brand-name identification was second to taste for 30.1 per cent of the interviewees. But the survey indicated that the more famous the brand was, the more people were swayed to make a purchase. (China Daily)

Chinese Police Adopt Examination System

BEIJING, September 22 (Xinhua) -- A Public Security Ministry official said today that China's police departments have begun using a competitive system to improve the level of police officers.
He said that the public security bureau in the city of Yangquan in Shanxi Province has begun using a qualification test in its personnel system for middle-level officers and 21 police officers were relieved of their duties when they failed the tests, which include a physical examination and colleagues' opinion.
Another official said that the exam will be given every five years and will push police officers to improve their ability overall. Eventually, an employment contract system will be introduced to accompany the exam system.