Zeng Peiyan, minister in charge of the State Development Planning Commission, said in Beijing today that China's imports and exports grew fairly rapidly and there was continued improvement in the utilization of foreign funds in 1999.

In his report on the implementation of the 1999 plan and the Draft 2000 Plan for National Economic and Social Development at current session of the 9th NPC, Zeng said China kept to a strategy of success through quality and diversification of market outlets, working energetically to expand exports by granting more export credits, raising comprehensive tax refunds for exports and giving more authority to producing enterprises to independently engage in export.

As a result, the slump in exports was reversed with a high growth rate in the second half of 1999, he said.

For the whole of last year the total volume of China's imports and exports reached 360.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 11.3 percent over the previous year, he said.

The minister said that exports accounted for 194.9 billion US dollars, a rise of 6.1 percent. Imports amounted to 165.8 billion US dollars, up 18.2 percent. The pattern of exports improved constantly. Exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 14.7 percent, representing a net rise of 9.9 billion US dollars, which accounted for 88 percent of the net rise in total exports.

Some 56.3 billion US dollars in foreign funds was used, a decrease of 3.9 percent over the previous year. Foreign investment totaled 45.4 billion US dollars, including 40.4 billion US dollars of direct foreign investment and ranking China the first among the developing countries.

There was a marked increase in the number of fund- and technology-intensive projects encouraged by the state, with an increase in the size of individual projects. More multinational corporations invested and established production facilities in China, he said.