More than 700,000 business managers and staff were given training in modern business management in 2005 in East China's prosperous Zhejiang Province, a provincial enterprise association said.

Statistics, released by the Private Enterprises' Association, indicate that entrepreneurs in the province are attaching greater importance to learning modern management techniques.

"In the past, private business owners lacked modern management ideas, which led to less scientific decisions and strategic plans for their enterprises," said Pan Lisheng, secretary-general of the association.

A large number of private businesses have emerged over the past decades in Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province which has experienced rapid economic development.

At the end of 2005, the province housed 370,000 private enterprises and 1.2 million individual household businesses. The private sector now creates over 70 percent of the gross domestic product of the province.

Source: Xinhua