Shanghai's new airport in Pudong is scheduled to open on October 1, although the private jets of moguls attending the Fortune 500 forum on Sept 27 are expected to be allowed to land there ahead of time. Shanghai desperately needs a new airport. Passenger traffic through Hongqiao has been growing at more than 20 percent a year for years now. It currently now handles 13 million air passengers a year, while its design capacity is only 9.6 million. The Pudong airport will have four runways and will be built in four phases with an eventual capacity of 70 million passengers a year, 90,000 passengers an hour during peak times. Hongqiao will continue to be used, and will focus more on domestic routes while Pudong handles more international flights.

China Eastern Airlines, one of China's largest airlines based in Shanghai, reported a loss of 632.4 million yuan in 1998. Earnings per share fell from 0.068 yuan in 1997 to minus 0.13 yuan in 1998. The airline blamed sluggish demand and a vicious air ticket price war. The airline said it planned to modernize its fleet and expand code sharing with international airlines to reduce costs. At the end of 1998, China Eastern had 71 planes flying on 129 air routes, including 21 international.

Shanghai Petrochemical, China's largest petrochemical complex, also reported a 67 per cent fall in net profit for last year. Th firm blamed the Asian financial crisis and low-priced and illegal imports from neighbouring countries.

China has no schedule for making the RMB fully convertible, according to officials who said that to remove controls on the currency too soon would impact on stability.

China has suspended all new nuclear power projects for at least three years due to overcapacity. China currently has two nuclear power plants in operation - Qinshan in Zhejiang and Guangdong's Daya Bay. They produce less than one percent of China's total power output.

Kelihua Educational Software has became the first private mainland software firm to get a stock listing by buying a large stake in an already-listed company, Acheng Steel Group, which is listed on the Shanghai exchange. Kelihua was founded in 1991 and is now China's largest educational software company.

The Melissa virus caused little or no trouble in China, but the CIH-virus, which struck on April 26, was horrifically destructive. The China Daily said over 200,000 computers were hit, which is probably a very conservative estimate.

Official figures indicate over-supply of most commodities on China's retail markets, which will presumably continue to push prices down. The retail price index fell 2.9% inj the first three months of the year compared to the same period last year.

Shanghai plans to reduce the proportion of state enterprises which lose money from 35 percent to 15 percent by the end of next year, the China Daily said. That means 400 companies must either start to turn a profit or close down.

OGILVY & Mather Public Relations has been chosen by Fortune magazine as the public relations agency for its Fortune 500 forum to be held September 27-29 in Shanghai.

Foreign insurance companies will be allowed to expand the scope of their business in China, officials said. More compan ies will be licenced and they will be allowed to operate in more cities to give China access to advanced management expertise and know-how. Nine foreign insurance companies currently operate in China, while 113 others have rep offices here.

Natural gas from the East China Sea was delivered to residents in Shanghai for the first time on April 28. Pudong is the first online, but Puxi will gradually gain access to the clean energy source, officials said.

Huaneng Power International is to buy the Nanjing Power Plant, the largest coal-fired power plant in Nanjing city, for 2.7 billion yuan.

Northwest Airlines has applied for three nonstop flights from Detroit to Shanghai. United Airlines is also planning to apply for daily non-stop services between San Francisco hub and Shanghai.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said iot aimed to become one of the major stock markets of the Asia-Pacific region within five years, and wanted to encourage the listing of hi-tech enterprises. The SSE was founded in 1991. It has listings by 486 companies.