Shanghai officials in charge of foreign trade and economic cooperation disclosed on January 10 that the city's export target for this year is 20 billion US dollars, 1.21 billion US dollars more than last year.

Statistics show that the net export increase for the city was over 2.8 billion US dollars in 1999, up 17.8 percent over 1998, and was second nationwide, behind only south China's Guangdong Province.

To maintain this progress, the municipal government will amend its policies on export enterprises according to their operational conditions, and will strengthen the cooperation of technology, other industries, and exports to optimize export commodity structures, said Shanghai Vice-Mayor Chen Liangyu.

Export value last year accounted for one-fourth of the city's total industrial output value, thereby accelerating the city's economic growth. Of note is that foreign-funded enterprises are playing a key role in the increase of exports, accounting for 55.69 percent of the city's total.