China on show at APEC meet

By Amit Baruah

SHANGHAI, OCT. 17.

The country is on show. It's powerful skyscrapers and enormous human resources have been mobilised to put up a grand spectacle for the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meetings.

Shanghai's Pudong district was all lit up last night. More than 1,000 fluent English-speaking volunteers have been assigned to help about 15,000 delegates, business people and journalists to attend and report APEC deliberations.

The arrangements in this city of 14.2 million people are impressive. With thousands of delegates and mediapersons from 21 nations covering the week-long APEC deliberations, China could not have found a better occasion to showcase itself to the world.

The streets leading to the APEC venues are almost "car-less" -- an indication of the heavy security that has been mounted. Pudong, Shanghai's spanking-new business district, which is holding the conference, has been spruced up. Even along the expressway, you can see workers picking up the last bit of paper from the streets. Beginning today, many Shanghai residents will begin a five-day holiday to ``keep the streets clear'', the Shanghai Daily reported.

More than 10,000 security personnel are involved in the protection of conference venues, while the country has tightened air traffic control and surveillance, apart from increased patrolling in the waters off Shanghai.

``The year 2001 has been good for China. It won the bid to hold the 2001 Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and its football team has made a surprise entry into the World Cup finals. And, then there's APEC, of course,'' one diplomat told this correspondent. ``The idea is to tell the world that China is a power house and Shanghai is representative of that growth.''

It's being laid on thick by the Chinese. From the airport to the hotel to the media centre, volunteers are at hand to guide you at every step even as security personnel keep a close watch.

There is an APEC channel broadcasting detailed updates throughout the day. A "message channel" displays what press conferences are being held at designated media hotels.

About 20 five and four-star hotels are housing APEC visitors. A total of 2,200 vehicles have been pressed into service.

Growth in Economy

It was officially announced today that China's economy grew by 7.6 per cent during the first three quarters of 2001 defying the slowdown in much of East and South East Asia. Preliminary figures suggest that China's GDP rose to U.S. $6.7 trillion between January and September this year.

``China's economy continued to develop at a fast pace due to a series of policies designed to stimulate domestic demand in the light of the global economic slowdown,'' Mr. Li Xiachao, spokesman for China's statistics bureau, said.

Retail sales, he pointed out, of consumer goods touched U.S. $322.8 billion between January and September, an increase of 10.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

But the slowdown in the world economy has affected China as well. Despite the positive results, Mr. Li conceded that overall economic growth in China was slow. That, he said, was partly due to a stagnating American economy having a ripple effect on the rest of the world.

Whatever be the immediate prospects of China's economic growth, a comparison with India is telling. Shanghai, along with the neighbouring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, in 2000 had a GDP of U.S. $230 billion -- almost half that of India. The total exports of these three East China provinces were U.S. $70.51 billion, twice those of India. And, in 2000, the total amount of foreign direct investment was U.S. $11.4 billion -- four times that of India.

One of the many official information booklets given to the international media has this to say about China's commercial capital: ``Shanghai plays a decisive role in the country. With a population of only one per cent and a land area of 0.06 per cent of the nation, Shanghai contributes to one-twelfth of the nation's total industrial output value, one-sixth of the country's port cargo handling volume, one-fourth of the country's total exports and one-eighth of national financial revenue...''

Shanghai may not be the colonialists' ``Paris of the East'' anymore, but its centrality to the economic life of China remains unchallenged.

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