| has gloss | eng: Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs 乡镇企业/郷鎮工業) are market-oriented public enterprises under the purview of local governments based in townships and villages in the People's Republic of China. They initially built on commune- and brigade-run industries that had been set up to serve the rural areas during the Great Leap Forward. During that time, TVEs had a limited role and were restricted to the production of iron, steel, cement, chemical fertilizer, hydroelectric power, and farm tools. However, the reforms of 1978 changed this and TVEs became the most vibrant part of the Chinese economy as they experienced significant expansion in the 1980s and early 1990s. Farmer income was stagnating by the mid-1980s, and TVEs provided an excellent means to stimulate non-grain and non-agricultural production. The development of these enterprises also meshed with the political requirements of local governments, which saw TVEs as a regular source of revenue in an environment of constrained resources. TVE employment grew from 28 million in 1978 to a peak of 135 million in 1996. In provinces such as Jiangsu and Shandong they employed some 30 percent of the rural workforce. |