In the last five years, Qingdao has given high priority on developing private economy and has achieved good result. Private economy is now playing an increasingly important role in the city's economy.

Located at No. 292 Renmin Road is a little dry cleaners. It is the fi rst store of the famous Jieshen Dry Cleaners Company. 10 years ago, 32- year- old Sun Shanjia borrowed 70,000 Yuan to open the 20 square-meter dry cleaners. Now Sun has 35 chain stores and possesses some 10 million Yuan worth of assets. He attributed his success to the encouraging policies of the party which enabled his realization of personal capability.

By the end of this September, the city has registered more than 38,000 private enterprises and some 800,000 individual businessmen. The added value of private economy accounted for 28% of the city's GDP. The achieved retail volume of consumer goods accounted for 52% of the total.

Private businessmen also paid attention to technical progress and building of brands in their development. Qingdao Chuangtong Science and Technology Development Company Ltd. had less than 10 employees when it was opened. Sui Xueli, quit his job as a civil servant and devoted himself to the development of high-tech products. They have won 15 national patents in the last 12 years. The scale of the enterprise ranks first in its circle in China. The company now has an asset of 30 million Yuan. Sui spoke highly of the good environment he has enjoyed in the last five years since the conclusion of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Private enterprises are developing to be large one which produce high quality products. Yuanfeng Group is another kind of private enterprise. It attracted foreign investment and is now possessing an asset of 120 million Yuan. Their textile products are selling well on the international market.

The private enterprises paid back to the society with various means. They employed more than 60,000 laidoffs and built up schools for children in poverty stricken areas.

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