August.24

"Since 2003 the number of Beijing's permanent residents has increased by 40 percent but that of taxis by a mere 1000 or just about 1.5 percent.The number of taxis in Shanghai has also been a constant around 50000 for many years."

Huang Shaoying,associate professor of Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the media while commenting on some local governments' failure to issue more taxi licenses to meet the incresing for taxis.