The cities, the people and their health
Radical reform of the enterprise sector, especially since 1994, has resulted in far-reaching changes which have had different impacts. Multi-ownership systems have been encouraged as a means of developing a production economy in place of the original predominantly publicly owned economic system. A breakdown of 2,053 businesses in Nantong in 1997 revealed: 636 public and government institutions; 404 state-owned enterprises/factories and companies/firms; 575 collectively owned enterprises/factories and companies/firms; 15 joint-venture; 196 stock-shared; 133 foreign-backed; 80 supported by Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau; and 14 others (Nantong Statistical Bureau, 1998). In the last two decades large and middle-scale enterprises have thrived. Non-publicly owned economic forms in particular have mushroomed, their product value in Nantong rising from a little over 0 per cent of total products to 36.6 per cent from 1978 to 1997 (Nantong Statistical Bureau, 1998).
