"We are determined to make Shijiazhuang the City of Pharmacy in China", said a resolute Zang Shengye, mayor of the capital city of North China's Hebei Province on September 19, 2003.

Shijiazhuang, located 280-kilometers south to Beijing, is home to three of China's top level pharmaceutic enterprises - Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutic Group, Huabei Parmaceutic group and Shineway Group.

"The output of pharmaceutic industry in Shijiazhuang has reached 12.7 billion yuan (US$1.53b) in the year of 2002, ranking the first in all Chinese cities", said Zang in a news conference to journalists from 14 major Chinese news websites including www.Xinhuanet.com, people.com.cn and news.sina.com

." Backed by a surgeoning development of the pharmaceutic industry in the city and support from the State Council, we have been determined to make Shijiazhuang the City of Pharmacy in China in next few years." Zang said.

With a population of 2.1 million people, Shijiazhuang has a total of 287 phmarceutic factories, with the Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutic Group topping the roaster, counting both fixed asset and production .

The Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutic Group was listed in Hong Kong in 1994, and having now been the biggest among all listed pharmaceutic enterprises there.

Another medicine production giant in Shijiazhuang is Shineway Pharmaceutic Group, a workshop-turned group famed now in Chinese traditional medicine production.

Dispite of an ambitious plan to nurture more enterprises like thetwo mentioned above, the average living standard of the city is still in need of further improvement.

" Our plan to increase thecitizens' average income with a speed of 7 percent, but eventually we didn't reach the pace in last five years", the Mayor said frankly. " This is the hardest task of all, but we'll devote every efforts to make every citizen live a "well-off" life before 2015.

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