At a press conference on February 24, Shanghai Municipal Government spokesman Jiao Yang introduced the following issues and answered reporters' questions.
Shanghai will adopt new policies and measures to enhance domestic cooperation and exchanges. The 7th National University Games will be held in Shanghai.

Eastday: You just mentioned that Shanghai drafted 24 policies to further serve the whole nation in 1998, and in 2000, the city formulated plans to take part in the development of China's West. Can you tell me what are the differences and relationship between the two documents and their forthcoming policies?

Jiao Yang: The 24 policies, formulated in 1998 and amended in 2001, were created for improving the local investment environment and paving a way for the development of enterprises from outside the city in order to offer better services for the whole country. The 17 policies formulated in 2000 were significant measures for the city to carry out China's strategies to develop the West region. We set up special funds to encourage local enterprises to go out of the city to take part in the development of China's West. The new policies to be issued soon are a guidance document to enhance domestic cooperation and exchanges, following the requirements of the Chinese central government and local development. Shanghai must be integrated with the whole country and offer better service to the nation. The policies clarify local work guidelines and operational mechanism, indicating the main tasks to enhance cooperation and exchanges in the Yangtze River Delta, the development of China's West, and the development of old industrial bases in Northeast region. The new policies and the former two documents all come down in one continuous line.

South China Morning Post: The East China Fair will be held next week but in business scale and the number of overseas participants, it cannot compare with the Chinese Export Commodities Fair. The East China Fair mainly attracts businessmen in the Southeast Asian regions. Are there any measures that Shanghai is planning to take to attract more businessmen from home and abroad to the fair?

Jiao Yang: The East China Fair actually cannot compare with the Chinese Export Commodities Fair to date. The latter one, with more than 90 years of history, is a fair sponsored by the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. The Shanghai-based East China Fair is China's regional export commodities fair, jointly held by Shanghai and East China cities and provinces, with the support of the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (now the Ministry of Commerce). However, the East China Fair has had many participants from European and American countries, and Southeast Asia is not the only destination for Shanghai's exports. After more than ten years of development, great changes have taken place in the fair, including scale, commodity structure and participants, and except for last year when China was undergoing the SARS outbreak, the fair has made year-on-year improvements, attracting both enterprises within the East China area and outside the region. The location of the East China Fair is currently at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, with a largely expanded exhibition space, but still we cannot fully satisfy the requirements of enterprises from outside the city. With the rapid economic development, enterprises in East China regions reached consensus that they should organize the fair together and take measures to improve it. If overseas reporters are expecting to interview officials about the fair, our information office can offer them help and services.

East Radio Station: There are no clear measures available to enhance a joint development in the Yangtze River Delta region. Can you tell me if there are any projects currently, and what benefits local citizens can gain from them? Are there any barriers to the projects?

Jiao Yang: It is a hot topic. The projects should be conducted step by step. Shanghai must depend on, integrate with and serve the Yangtze River Delta. Shanghai has cooperated with the government departments in the Yangtze River Delta in many aspects, with policies being the foundation of cooperation. The Jiangsu, Zhejiang Province and Shanghai have established a good cooperative system over the past two years, with all levels of cooperative projects launched, and Shanghai citizens can recognize them. For example, the tourism industry was hit hard by SARS last year, and the tourism departments of the three provinces and city offered new promotions to attract tourists from home and abroad. In the information field, they have signed cooperative agreements in sharing geographic information and discussed working out an electronic map for Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. In the educational field, they have also signed cooperative agreements in employment programs for university graduates in the three areas, and Shanghai universities are encouraged to cooperate with Jiangsu and Zhejiang universities to jointly conduct educational programs. In the scientific and technological fields, a mutual scientific and technological innovative system is established to enhance sharing resources and to encourage cooperation and exchanges in science and technology. In the foreign trade field, Shanghai has set up 28 cargo transport agents in the Yangtze River Delta, Jiangsu Province established 33 such agents in Shanghai and Zhejiang placed 13 agents in the city. In the property rights trade area, in the first ten months of last year, the Yangtze River Delta registered property rights trade volumes of nearly 2.5 billion yuan (US$300 million), accounting for 30 percent of the total cross-regional mergers. In the human resources field, an overall human resources program for Jiangsu, Zhejiang Province and Shanghai has been launched so that talents in the three regions can get employment in any of the three areas without barriers.

Oriental Morning Post: My question is about the Yangtze River Delta area. I've learned Shanghai cars as of recently are not allowed to get license plates in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. Spokesmen for the two provinces said that higher-level governments had demanded they not license cars from Shanghai. Is this an act of Shanghai Municipality? If it is, why? And if it isn't, what's your comment on it? You've referred to the Shanghai government's achievements in cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta in the precious year. Can you talk about the government's plan for this year in this regional cooperation?

Jiao Yang: For the plate license of local cars, there're many of Shanghai residents' cars using plate licenses of non-Shanghai areas. The growing number of these cars have undoubtedly increased Shanghai's traffic load. The relevant departments are investigating and surveying this issue. According to data from vehicle administrative departments of Suzhou, more than 8,000 Shanghai-purchased cars purchase licenses in the Jiangsu city, including its suburban areas of Taicang and Kunshan.
Currently, Shanghai's traffic administration, based on surveys and research, are enforcing the control and management of cars to ensure safer and smoother traffic in the city. Basically, all the acts are to ensure fast and efficient traffic for local citizens.
Because of the high demand, Shanghai has been adopting a non-base-price bidding system for the auto plate license quota.
For your question of licensing local autos in other areas, I don't think it will be solved simply by government interference. Instead, the government should research the situation and then work out solutions, taking more effective measures to make traffic smooth and to relieve the heavy traffic.

Shanghai Daily: Shanghai will use the opportunity of the World Expo to promote cooperation with the Yangtze River Delta area. Last week, when the Shanghai World Expo Group was launched, there was reference to international cooperation. My question is: what's the World Expo group's plan for inner-Yangtze-River-Delta-area development? And how many people from the Yangtze River Delta area are expected to visit the World Expo?

Jiao Yang: It's still too early to predict how many people will visit the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. I think reporters here would all agree to me.
As a key beneficiary of the event, the Yangtze River Delta area has played a key role in support of the World Expo. It enthusiastically supported Shanghai's expo bid when the BIE came to China for inspection. During that visit, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, from the governments to local people, provided passionate and honest support, which deeply impressed the BIE officials. Therefore, Shanghai's success in the expo bidding is the fruit of not only Shanghai's hard work but also that of the Yangtze River Delta area as well as the country.

As for the World Expo group plan for the inner-Yangtze-River-Delta-area cooperation, I think it better to leave the question to the group's officials. But, one point is for sure, that is the World Expo group will take full advantages of the Yangtze River Delta resources at this historic chance to promote prosperity and development of the entire Delta area.

Shanghai Evening News: You said more than 30,000 enterprises from out of Shanghai have entered the city. What about their business growth and business scale? Compared with overseas companies, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these domestic enterprises? And what kind of domestic enterprises does Shanghai most favor? According to a People's Daily's report, only one of the 775 golf courses in China has passed government approval. What's the situation in Shanghai?

Jiao Yang: I don't think a simple comparison is possible to make between domestic and overseas companies. Shanghai welcomes any enterprise from out of the city as long as it's in line with Shanghai's industrial development strategy and adaptable to Shanghai's requirements of its economic structure as well as its own development in Shanghai. Shanghai warmly welcomes such companies, offering them equal treatment with local enterprises.

As for the golf courses, our attitude is that enterprises must operate legally in accordance to the country's laws. The government's responsibility is to supervise according to the law while creating a good business environment.

News Times (Shanghai): In 1999, Shanghai drew up 24 policies to further serve the nation. Afterwards in 2000, the city formulated plans to take part in the development of China's West. Is the notice published today a revised version of the pervious two plans? Comparing the three plans, we find the most significant feature of this new plan is supporting the re-birth of former industrial cities in northeast China. So, in what form will Shanghai cooperate with the northeast cities? Has any cooperation project begun yet?

Jiao Yang: Your first question is identical to the one raised by the journalist from the eastday website. The documents of 1998, 2000 and the current one originate from the same purpose, yet vary in content. They cannot be replaced by each other. All of the three plans are made according to the requirement of the central government and the actual needs of China's development. New policies are issued to cope with the changing conditions of each period.

The features of the newly-issued notice are far more than supporting the re-birth of the northeast industrial cities. The notice emphasizes the importance of serving the whole nation, and pointed out that it's essential to Shanghai's further development. It also provides an operational system for serving the nation, and clarifies the role of the government, the macro market, enterprises and social organizations in this project. Concrete policies are provided in the notice to guarantee the plan runs smoothly. All the above are outstanding features of the notice.

As for supporting the renaissance of northeast China, the Shanghai government is studying the advantages of northeast Chinese cities for Shanghai, and looking for the point of cooperation. This is a large issue, and needs to be studied thoroughly. In 2003, the municipal government sent an investigation team to northeast China to talk with local officials about the project, in hopes of obtaining a win-win result. Both sides agreed to allot a cooperation fund, part of which will be used to encourage Shanghai enterprises to merge, acquire or set up joint ventures with companies in the northeast. Shanghai should use its advantage of a mature market and agency services to take part in the development of northeast China抯industrial bases.

Shanghai Youth Daily: You mentioned just now that enterprises in Shanghai are encouraged to found joint ventures in northeast China. So what favorable policies will the government grant these enterprises? Are there any agencies already in place for the cooperation projects?

Jiao Yang: I have said that we will allot a sum of money to encourage local companies to take part in the reconstruction of northeast China抯cities. The policy has just been published; it provides a guidance and a service platform under which companies and agencies will initiatively run their businesses. Yet at present we don't have detailed figures on how many agencies are operating in this field. Officials from the cooperation office are present at today's press conference. You may consult them for more information. We too wish to obtain follow-up information on this issue.