Why did the Four Hundred Pilot Experiment Enterprises in Sichuan Achieve Swift Results?

The pilot experiments to increase the autonomy of enterprises conducted in Sichuan began in October last year. At first there were only 6 enterprises involved; it was extended to 100 early this year. The experimental work in the first half of this year has already brought good results. The total industrial output value of these 100 enterprises grew, in the first half of this year, at a rate 56.7 percent higher than the average growth rate of the total industrial output value of the province as a whole; the profit realized by 84 of the local industrial enterprises under the experiment grew at a rate 54 percent higher than the average growth rate of the profit of local industries in the province as a whole, and the quality, in general, of products has also been raised. The 14 experimental enterprises within the chemical industry system in Sichuan alone had 86 percent of their major products reach quality control targets which equaled or surpassed the highest historical standards; especially in terms of the rate of Grade A products where there was a momentous leap in quality. Moreover, some of the successful experimental units utilized their expanded financial autonomy to carry out technical renovations in a planned manner, transforming backward labor procedures and labor species through the processes of mechanization-labor combination and automation, thus expanding production capacity and stepping up the pace of the enterprises' modernization. Quite a few of the experimental enterprises also took advantage of the expanded welfare fund to build apartments for staff and workers. Of the six factories we investigated, a total of 29 apartments occupying 400 square meters were built during the first half of this year, accommodating 730 staff and worker households.