The results of the first national economic census published Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)showed China has 5.169 million legal entities in the secondary and tertiary, or service industries by the end of 2004.

Among them, the number of corporate personnel stood at 3.25 million and that of institutional legal persons, 900,000; social group legal persons, 105,000; and other legal persons 914,000.

The census showed there were 1.675 million acting entities in the secondary industry and 5.149 million acting entities in the tertiary industry by the end of last year.

The majority of the acting entities are located in the eastern part of China. Those engaged in the manufacturing industry came to 1.375 million, making up 20.1 percent of the total, those engaged in wholesale and retail sales stood at 1.2 million, or 17.6 percent of the total.

The result of the census was jointly published Tuesday by the Leading Group of First National Economic Census of the State Council and the NBS.

The first-ever national economic census, which formally began on Dec. 31, 2004, was designed to draw an economic panorama of the country's fast-expanding secondary and tertiary industries and complete a database covering all economic sectors.

The census was also expected to help policy-makers and experts have a better understanding of the overall situation of the two sectors so as to help policy-makers draft the country's economic and social development program during 2006-2010 and formulate macro-regulation policies and industrial readjustment and restructuring.

Source: Xinhua