China's export and foreign investment in the first nine months have registered a sharp growth over the same period last year, with export increasing by 33.1 percent and contracted foreign investment by 27.86 percent.
This was announced by Hu Chusheng, spokesman of China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), Saturday at press conference for the opening of 88th China Export Commodity Fair.
The country’s imports and exports totaled US$345.42 billion between January and September, an increase of 35.7 percent over the previous year.
According Hu, exports totaled US$182.31 billion, up 33.1 percent, and imports stood at US$163.107 billion, up 38.7 percent.
The expected annual foreign trade volume of US$400 billion would be achieved ahead of schedule, he said.
The newly approved items of foreign investment were 15,732 in the period, up 23.3 percent over a year ago, and the contracted foreign investment was US$37.86 billion, up 27.86 percent, the spokesman said.
He added that the actual foreign investment this year has decreased by 8.7 percent due to the reduction in cooperative use of foreign funds over the past two years.
From 1996 to 2000, foreign trade has played an increasingly important role and has become a driving force for the China’s economic growth.
Statistics show the increase in exports promoted a 2.9 percentage point growth in the country’s industrial production.
(People’s Daily 10/14/2000)
