Xiamen is learning its lesson from and leveling itself out of the case of Yuanhua Smuggling in a bid to speed up development of its economy, said Zhu Yayan, mayor of Xiamen, Fujian Province, in an interview given after hosting the opening ceremony of the 5th Xiamen-Taiwan Export Fair.
Yuanhua smuggling had brought heavy tariff losses and badly harmed Xiamen's economy and image, Zhu added.
The municipal government and residents of Xiamen all back the struggle launched by the central government to fight against smuggling in Xiamen. Xiamen must draw lessons from the case and see to it that economy is developed, a clean government built, and success won for an all-round development of various social and economic undertakings, said the mayor.
According to Zhu, Xiamen has achieved a speedy economic progress and a GDP growth of 11.5 percent in the first quarter, pointing to an annual 14 percent GDP growth potential this year.
During the coming five years, Xiamen will open up on a bigger scale, training of personnel will be stepped up, economy restructured, development of hi-tech industry accelerated and modernization first basically realized by 2005 to turn Xiamen into an international modern port city by 2010.
(21dnn 04/17/2001)
