Private business owners to attend Party schools in Shanghai
25/1/2005 15:24
China's largest metropolis Shanghai has decided to put private
entrepreneurs alongside local officials and state firm executives in classrooms
for theoretical training about Marxism and the Communist Party of China
(CPC).
Beginning this year, the city will open its theoretical education
institutions -- including Party schools and administration colleges -- to more
private businessmen to remind them of Communist ideology and patriotism and keep
them updated about prevailing theories about CPC's building and improvement of
governance.
The classroom was open only to public servants and senior
executives of state-owned companies in Shanghai, until the municipal government
decided to extend the theoretical training to private businessmen in its 2005
blueprint on personnel training.
The blueprint, which was announced in
Shanghai Monday, requests all Party schools in Shanghai -- at both municipality
and district levels -- to include theoretical training for private businessmen
in their curricula.
The decision has been applauded by private businessmen in
Shanghai. "Party school has always been a sacred, secluded place only for
officials," said Zhang Hong, vice president of Shanghai Huilong Computer Systems
Co Ltd, "I never imagined I could be given the chance."
She is not the first
private entrepreneur in China to have the opportunity. Prior to Shanghai's move,
several localities in China already opened Party schools to private businessmen,
including the neighboring Zhejiang Province and Heilongjiang Province in the
northernmost.
Even the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, the highest
institution that trains top and middle-ranking Party officials, has offered a
couple of training programs to private business owners in recent years.
Zhang
said she hoped what she is to learn at the Party school will be practical,
instructive and beneficial to her routine work. "I'd be keenly interested in
learning about prevalent laws and policies," she said.
According to the 2005
training blueprint announced here on Monday, personnel departments in Shanghai
will also arrange study tours overseas for private businessmen and will offer
tailored services to foster private businesses in ideological education,
technological advancement and administration.
The local government will also
help set up more private entrepreneurs' associations which, along with local
employment services, are expected to provide concrete help to private firms in
their business development and recruitment of professionals.
Private firms
make up 70 percent of all the 536,000 businesses registered in Shanghai. The
private sector is estimated to have posted 289.5 billion yuan (US$34.88 billion)
of added value in 2004, nearly 40 percent of the city's gross domestic product
in the year.
Latest statistics say Shanghai's GDP reached 744 billion yuan (
US$89.6 billion) in 2004.
Xinhua
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