The total worth of China's
imports is expected to exceed US$1.5 trillion from 2004 to 2006,
said Deng Zhan, an official with the Ministry Commerce Tuesday.
China's imports have
realized fast growth for the three consecutive years since 2001 and
the scale of absorbing foreign investment has been further
enlarged, said Wang Zhan at China Mining 2004 symposium that opened
in Beijing Tuesday.
The imports volume of
China reached US$412.8 billion in 2003, making it the third largest
importer in the world. Besides, China absorbed US$53.5 billion
foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, making it first in the
world in FDI.
In the first nine months
this year, China's imports have exceeded US$412.3 billion, up 38.2
percent over the same period last year. The number of foreign
investment enterprises newly registered in the period rose 9.2
percent year-on-year to 32, 200, with actual foreign investment of
US$48.69 billion, up 21 percent.
This year, China's imports
are expected to exceed US$500 billion and China would absorb
foreign investment of more than US$62 billion, said Wang.
The rapid growth in per
capita income among the Chinese, one-fifth of the world population,
has created huge purchasing power.
From 2001 to 2003, China
imported commodities worth about US$1 trillion with an average
annual increase of 22.4 percent, said Wang.
He said that it was
estimated that by 2020 China's gross domestic products (GDP) would
reach four trillion US dollars and the total worth of its domestic
retailing of consumer goods would reach US$2.4 trillion.
By then, the China's
annual imports would reach about US1 trillion and China would
become the second largest market in the world, Wang said.
(Xinhua News Agency
November 17, 2004)
