Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade
and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng on Wednesday set a
target for the country's foreign trade volume at 2,000
billion US dollars by the year 2020, quadruple of current
foreign trade figures, at a press conference organized by
the media center for the 16th National Congress of the
Communist Party of
China.
Chinese Minister of
Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng on
Wednesday set a target for the country's foreign trade
volume at 2,000 billion US dollars by the year 2020,
quadruple of current foreign trade figures.
Shi said at a press conference
organized by the media center for the 16th National Congress
of the Communist Party of China that such a target is a
"grand" one that will take arduous efforts to
reach.
That means China's
foreign trade will have to grow at an annual average of 7.2
percent from now on, he said.
Pivotal role of foreign trade
Chinese Minister of Foreign
Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng on Wednesday
set a target for the country's foreign trade volume at 2,000
billion US dollars by the year 2020, quadruple of current
foreign trade figures.
Shi
said at a press conference organized by the media center for
the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
that such a target is a "grand" one that will take
arduous efforts to reach.
That
means China's foreign trade will have to grow at an annual
average of 7.2 percent from now on, he said.
Shi Guangsheng said that the
proportion of exports in China's GDP had increased to 23
percent in 2001 from 11.8 percent in 1989, 5 percentage
points more than the world average. Actual overseas capital
accounted for 11 percent of all investments in fixed assets
across the country in 2001, and industrial added value of
the overseas-funded enterprises made up 24.6 percent of the
nation's total, he said.
Foreign trade and economic
cooperation, Shi said, has helped accelerate economic
restructuring and increase economic efficiency in the
country.
By cooperating with
overseas firms or absorbing advanced technology and
managerial expertise from abroad, he said, China has had
traditional industries like textiles and home appliances
upgraded, while fostering new and high-tech industries.
Shi said that exports and
imports contributed 16 percent of China's tax revenues last
year and more than 70 million people are engaged in foreign
trade and economic cooperation.
The development of the sector
has also helped improve China's balance of payments, pushing
its foreign exchange reserves up to 258.6 billion US dollars
by the end of September 2002 from 5.5 billion US dollars at
the end of 1989, ranking second in the world, Shi added.
US not to Form Free Trade Zone
with Taiwan
The
minister said Wednesday that the US side has confirmed that
it has not sought, and will not seek, to negotiate with
Taiwan on forming a free trade zone.
Shi said that US Trade
Representative Robert B. Zoellick told him during a recent
APEC meeting of trade ministers in Mexico that the United
States has not been engaged in such negotiations with Taiwan
and will not do so in the future.
He said that the Taiwan
authorities are making use of forming official pacts with
foreign countries on free trade arrangements for the purpose
of realizing de facto "Taiwan Independence". This
represents a "sensitive political issue," he said.
China is opposed to all
countries that have established diplomatic relations with
China forming official ties of any form with Taiwan, he
said.
Shi called for
"action" in promoting the three direct links
across the Taiwan Straits.
The
minister said at the press conference that there should be
no more talks but concrete action now for the three direct
links.
As to direct charter
flight by Taiwan air companies, Shi said relevant mainland
civil aviation authorities would respond actively if Taiwan
air companies applied for such flight.
FDI reaches
US$46.44b in first 10
months
Actual Foreign direct
investment (FDI) and contractual capital from abroad for the
first 10 months of this year reached US$46.44 billion and
US$76.5 billion, respectively, up 20 percent and 35 percent
from the same period in 2001, Chinese Foreign Trade Minister
Shi Guangsheng said.
New
trends have been on the advent that include an increase in
the average amount of investment for each overseas-funded
project, a shift of focus of overseas capital from general
manufacturing to basic industries, infrastructure, and new
and high-tech industries, and a growing inflow of
investments from large multinationals, Shi told a press
conference on the sidelines of the ongoing 16th National
Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Over the 13 years, he said,
actual overseas capital in China topped US$400 billion,
accounting for 97 percent of the total since the country
initiated reform and opening up policies in the late 1970s.
The average amount of capital
for each overseas-funded project jumped to 2.65 million US
dollars last year from 970,000 US dollars in 1989, he said,
adding that more than 400 of the world's top 500
corporations have had operations in China.
An increasing number of
overseas investors have entered such sectors as foreign
trade, telecommunications, finance, and insurance, Shi
added.
Go-Out
strategy
China
has achieved initial success in implementing its
"go-out strategy", which encourages domestic
enterprises to invest overseas, giving a push to the growth
of export-oriented economy, said Shi Guangsheng.
"By the end of June this
year, China had set up 6,758 enterprises overseas with a
total investment of 13.2 billion dollars, of which 8.9
billion was Chinese capital," said Shi .
Meanwhile, the total business
volume for China's overseas project contracting and labor
cooperation projects had reached 97.2 billion dollars, with
475,000 Chinese working overseas in various service export
projects at the end of June, a sharp increase of 432,000
compared with the figure at the end of 1989, he added.
The minister said that the
areas in which China has made its overseas investment have
expanded from trade, shipping and restaurant business to
manufacturing and processing, resource exploitation, project
contracting, agricultural cooperation and research and
development.
The modes of
overseas investment by Chinese enterprises, which in the
past only opened some overseas representative offices, now
vary from setting up plants to export China-made equipment
and materials, trans-national acquisition and merger,
overseas stock listing to establishing overseas research and
development centers or industrial parks, Shi noted.
Chinese personnel sent to work
overseas in service export projects used to be ordinary
laborers and technicians, but now they include all kinds of
professionals like hi-tech engineers and senior managerial
staff, he added.
Five positive
changes
The minister said that
China's opening-up has witnessed the change from a limited
opening-up in limited regions and fields to an all-round,
multi-level and much broader opening-up, as well as from a
policy-guided opening-up in an experimental manner to a
system-guaranteed opening-up under a legal framework.
Meanwhile, China's market
opening process has changed from a single-sided self-opening
to a two-way opening between China and other WTO members,
and China has now been able to take an active part in the
setting of international economic and trade rules instead of
having to accept these rules in a passive manner, Shi added.
The last change is that China
can now adjust its economic and trade relations with other
nations through both bilateral and multilateral discussion
mechanisms, while in the past it could only rely on the
bilateral mechanism for smoothing out disputes, said Shi.
"All these changes will
exert a comprehensive and far-reaching impact on our
country, provide new opportunities for the development of
China's foreign trade and economic cooperation, and help
blaze a new trail for China's participation in the economic
globalization," said Shi.
China formally became a member
of the WTO on December 11 last year. Shi said that in the
past year the Chinese government comprehensively fulfilled
its commitments with an "earnest and responsible"
attitude.
China has sharply
lowered its tariff level and removed various non-tariff
barriers, and has also abolished or revised as many as some
2,300 laws and regulations related to foreign trade and
economic cooperation to meet the WTO standards, he added.
"Generally speaking, the
entry into the WTO has and is continuing to have a positive
effect on China's economic development," said the
minister. "We have achieved a smooth beginning."
Press Conference on Foreign Trade and Economic Development
2004-06-09 15:42