From our archives

June 5, 1984

Funds flow into Xiamen SEZ

In the first three month of this year, Xiamen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Fujian province attracted more than $200 million foreign funds, Lu Zifen, secretary of Xiamen's Party Committee, said.

In recent years, the Xiamen SEZ has set up more than 10 joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises in the electronics, light industry, textiles, plastic, real estate, and food and beverages sectors, he said.

"Of the SEZ's total area of more than 120 sq km, we plan to develop 50 sq km or more in the first stage," he said. More than 500 million yuan will be invested on construction this year.

Jobless youths' hard work pays off

Four unemployed youths, who received nothing but discouragement in their quest to learn a specific trade, are training senior engineers, technicians and factory managers in technical knowledge.

Chao Jianjun failed his college entrance exam in 1978. As is the case with most of the youths who fail to qualify, Chao was anything but dull and lazy. For a long time he had been interested in chemistry and mechanics. He talked three other unemployed youths into joining him, and with a loan the four started their own factory.

A year later, their efforts paid off. The products they make now are superior both in appearance and quality to that made by other factories. Besides, they have slashed the production cost by two-thirds helping their business to boom.

Project to harness river completed

Work on a flood control project along the Yongding River on the western outskirts of Beijing has been completed.

About 23 km of dikes along the left bank of the river has been reinforced under the project. It included more than 1.2 million cu m of earth and stone-work and setting up 66,000 cu m of concrete, mortar and stone.

The project cost the State and Beijing municipal government 17 million yuan in special appropriation. The river will be able to handle water flows of up to 16,000 cu m per second, well above the recorded flood crest in the Beijing area.

(China Daily 06/05/2009 page9)