China confident to deliver 6-pct foreign trade growth goal: minister

BEIJING, March 7 -- Despite challenges from the global economy, China is confident to deliver the target of increasing its trade volume by around 6 percent this year, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said Saturday.

Gao made the remarks at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing annual parliamentary session.

China aims to increase its imports and exports by around 6 percent, according to the government work reported Thursday by Premier Li Keqiang to the National People's Congress annual session. The growth rate is lower than the target of around 7.5 percent set last year.

Hit by waning global market demand and declining commodity prices, China's imports and exports rose by 2.3 percent in 2014.

"Domestic and foreign trade environments for China this year are not improved markedly. To fulfill the foreign trade growth target, efforts should be made to implement the existing policies to stabilize foreign trade increase," Gao said.

China should endeavor to promote trade facilitation, strengthen support for businesses in the process of industrial upgrading, climb the global value ladder, focus on innovation-driven competitiveness and encourage the development of new export models like e-commerce, he said.

"We will continue to create a favorable international environment for stabilizing exports by Chinese enterprises," Gao added.

China's foreign trade will continue to see a decline in February according to available leading indicators but the situation will improve significantly. A growth of foreign trade is expected to emerge in March, he told reporters.

China's foreign trade tumbled in January, with exports dropping 3.2 percent and imports slumping 19.7 percent.

As the world's largest trading nation in goods, China's share in the global market rising to 12.2 percent from 11.7 percent in 2013, Gao noted.