From our archives

August 27, 1983

Shanghai employs foreign technology

Shanghai signed contracts on using foreign and Hong Kong funds to import technology and equipment for 120 projects in the first seven months of this year in a bid to upgrade its industry to keep up with world levels, said a spokesman for the State Economic Commission in Beijing.

The city also plans to import 500 items of technology and equipment between 1983 and 1985.

A decision made by the State Council in May granted Shanghai greater initiative in making use of foreign funds through means such as joint ventures and compensation trade.

Diverse forms of economy help to solve job problems

More unemployed youths have found jobs in the past few years when collective and individual economies have been booming.

By the end of June this year, the employees of collectively-owned organizations numbered more than 26,807,000, up 2.1 percent on the number in 1978.

The number of self-employed workers also grew to 1,860,000, 1.71 million more than in 1978.

Experts call for more highways

The construction of highways should be weighed the same as railways and ports, said a forum on highway transport in Changchun of Jilin province, amid concerns that the percentage of highway investment in total capital construction has decreased to less than 1 percent now from 3 percent in the 1950s.

With the rural economy rising rapidly, methods of getting products to markets are badly needed, experts on the forum agreed.

Trucks combust less oil than trains, and are more convenient than the latter in short-distance transportation, the forum argued.

(China Daily 08/29/2008 page9)