Private economy in Yuncheng has maintained robust growth.

According to data posted on the Yuncheng government website, the city had 85,373 private-invested companies by the end of 2005. Six of them were listed among China's top 500 private companies.

In the first four months of this year, private-funded companies in the city realized an incremental value of 6.07 billion yuan (US$758.75 million), up 23.2 per cent compared with the same period last year.

And their output value and business revenues also increased 16.8 and 17 per cent respectively, to reach 22.62 billion yuan (US$2.83 billion) and 21.16 billion yuan (US$2.65 billion).

Fixed-asset investment from the private sector amounted to 350 million yuan (US$43.75 million), including 299 projects each with an investment of more than 500,000 yuan (US$62,500).

As one of the biggest private companies in the city, Shanxi Haixin Iron and Steel Group Co Ltd is a typical example of the vigorous private economy.

With total assets of 7.1 billion yuan (US$887.5 million) and a staff of 10,145, Haixin Group has developed an annual production capacity of 1 million tons of coke, 3.5 million tons of iron, 3.6 million tons of crude steel and 2.6 million tons of finished steel products.

Supported by its state-of-the-art production technologies and management expertise, the company was listed as one of the top 50 Chinese steel and metallurgy companies.

In addition to coking and metallurgy, its operations also extend to power generation, cement production, real estate, finance and insurance.

Beginning from 2003, it topped the chart of private company taxpayers for two consecutive years.

In 2005, the company achieved an output value of 8.1 billion yuan (US$1.01 billion) and sales revenues of 8.03 billion yuan (US$1 billion).

And tax revenues collected from the company hit 427 million yuan (US$53.3 million), increasing 15 per cent compared with the previous year.

Another example is Shanxi Sanlian Casting Co Ltd, a joint venture engaged in manufacturing high-quality castings.

The company values technological innovation. It co-operated with Tsinghua University and established a research and development centre in 2002.

Advanced technologies are adopted in the company's production process, aimed at reducing pollution and saving energy.

It imported advanced production facilities from abroad to produce complicated castings.

The company received the ISO quality management system and environment management system certifications in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

The company's focus on technology and quality was rewarded with hoards of orders from home and abroad.

The active performance of the private sector has pushed growth of the local economy, which is evidenced by surging fixed-asset investment in the first half of this year.

According to data from the city's statistics bureau, the city's fixed-asset investment amounted to 5.75 billion yuan (US$718.75 million), up 35.9 per cent compared with the same period last year.

(China Daily 07/25/2006 page18)