Technology transaction volumes in the national capital of Beijing reached 1.044 billion yuan in May, down 52 percent on the same period last year.
A Beijing technology market management office spokesperson said that although the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak was under control in Beijing, the negative impact on the city's technology market would remain for the next few months.
Some technology transaction fairs had been called off or delayed.
To alleviate the economic losses, an on-line technology transaction platform has opened to the public. To date, more than 4,000 technology projects have been successfully accomplished on the Internet.
Beijing municipality is widely recognized as China's biggest technology transaction center with a total technology transaction volume of 22.1 billion yuan (about US$2.66 billion) last year, making up one quarter of the country's total.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)
