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China Daily | Updated: 2008-10-17 07:52

Oct 17, 1983

China to adopt more world trade standards

China will adopt 6,000 international standards in industry, agriculture, education and other fields by 1987, Cheng Chuanhui, director general of the State Bureau of Standardization, said in Beijing recently.

The country has already concluded bilateral agreements on standardization with Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Sweden and the US, Cheng said.

China now has 5,000 national standards, 20 percent of which are up to international standards.

Laws boost joint ventures

One hundred and five Chinese-foreign joint ventures with a total investment of $500 million have been established since the law on joint venture was instituted in July, 1979.

During this period, China has promulgated more than 20 by-laws and sets of regulations governing economic cooperation with other countries. These are meant to make it more convenient for foreign investors to undertake economic and technical partnership with China, based on principles like equality, mutual benefit, and observance of Chinese laws.

And to continue to promote its external economic cooperation, China is drafting a number of new laws covering patent rights, customs, co-production, corporation, foreign trade, and foreign enterprises in the country.

Workers help business in their spare time

Several million workers are involved in a nationwide technical cooperation drive to help enterprises improve economic results, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

There are now nearly 20,000 technical cooperation organizations across the country, with about one million activists taking part, an ACFTU spokesman said. "They carry out these activities in their spare time and holidays," the spokesman added.

Technical cooperation activities were initiated by workers in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, in the early 1960s when groups of model workers and veteran workers helped factories with technical problems and popularized advanced technology in their spare time.