Great Potential Predicted for Export of Minerals, Chemical ProductsThe export of minerals and chemical products enjoys great potential and is quite likely to become a new growth point in China's foreign trade, assistant minister Gao Hucheng of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said Tuesday.The import and export of minerals and chemical products now account for about one-fourth of China's total foreign trade volume, Gao told a meeting of executives of the nation's major minerals and chemical products companies. According to statistics, China's total import and export of minerals and chemical products reached US$121.78 billion last year, which was 39.1 percent more than in 1999 and 12 percentage points higher than the entire foreign trade growth rate. Of the 2000 total, exports increased 34.1 percent to US$42.2 billion and imports jumped 48.4 percent to US$79.5 billion. High-tech and high value-added products account for 85 percent of the minerals and chemical products exports after years of hard work to improve the export mix, Gao said. Enterprises engaged in the sectors of petroleum, chemicals, metals, nonferrous metals, mining, and building materials take a rather big share of China's top 500 industrial enterprises, he said. |
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