Exports to Reach 200 Billion USD This YearChina's export this year is very likely to reach 200 billion U.S. dollars, the target set in China' s five-year plan from 1996 to 2000, a senior Chinese official said in Beijing Friday.Wu Yi, an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and a state councilor, told China's foreign trade and economic cooperation officials in a televised conference that their job now is to reach the goal ahead of time. She said China's national economy has shown signs of overall recovery. Gross domestic product in the first half of the year grew 8.2 percent and the increase of exports, in particular, helped contribute to the economic recovery. From January to June, China exported a total of 114.5 billion U. S. dollars worth of goods, up 38.3 percent, the highest record in three-year. Imports from the period reached 102.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 36.2 percent. The state councilor cited analysis from the National Bureau of Statistics as saying that the exports increase has helped edge the industrial growth by 2.9 percentage points. In addition, the contractual volume of overseas investment to China in the first six months of the year grew 24.6 percent from the same period last year. She gave no specific figures. Wu urged officials to remain cool-headed and make practical analysis of the difficulties and uncertainties which will emerge in the coming months, and to ensure the development of foreign trade and overseas investment. "To expand exports in every possible way and to realize the better utilization of overseas investment both in quality and quantity are still our main tasks in the foreign trade and economic cooperation sector," she said. "It is very likely that we will hit the set target of foreign trade for the Ninth-Five-Year (1996-2000) plan, 400 billion U.S. dollars of both imports and exports and 200 billion U.S. dollars of exports. What we should do now is try our best to reach the goal ahead of schedule," she said. Concerning overseas investment, she said the growth of contractual overseas investment should continue, while the volume of actual overseas investment should be kept at about the same level as last year. In addition, Wu urged officials to prepare for the country's membership in the World Trade Organization. Shi Guangsheng, minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, and several other trade officials from Shanghai, Chongqing Municipality and Zhejiang Province pledged at the meeting that work to realize the year's goal. |
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