Huang Qifan, a deputy to the fourth session of the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) due to close Thursday, said Shanghai's economy has maintained a double-digit growth rate for nine consecutive years in that it took the lead in implementing the restructuring and successfully redirected the workers made redundant in the process.

Zhu Junyi, also a deputy and chief of the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau, said establishing a sound social security system is of great significance to ensure the realization of the economic restructuring targets.

Despite the diversion of more than one million industrial workers, the volume of sales in Shanghai has doubled during the past several years, said Huang, also director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission.

He said the per capita added value of industrial output increased by two times over that of 1994 to 80,000 yuan (9,750 U.S. dollars), ranking first in China.

Shanghai has done a good job of helping laid-off workers change their ideas of employment and encouraging them to receive re-training by social security departments so that they will become a new source of work force, Huang said.

(Xinhua 03/15/2001)