Shi Guangsheng, minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, made these remarks during a national conference on the import and export of machinery and electronic products here Sunday.

Shi said that China has been affected by the economic slowdown of world trade more than by the Asian financial crisis, and there are still many uncertain factors in foreign trade and economic cooperation. Nevertheless, China has plenty of scope for the development of its trade and economy, he said.

He urged the officials in charge of trade and the economy to work together to achieve 10 percent growth in the exports of machinery and electronic products this year.

He called for efforts to increase China's share of market in the fields of shipping, metallurgy and telecommunication facilities.

Two Export Partners---Russia & India

Shi said that Russia's economy has developed fast in recent years and has large demand for machinery and electronic products for consumption.

China 's export of machinery and electronic products to Russia valued US$370 million, up 56.5 percent from the previous year, according to Shi.

However, the minister said that the figure is disproportionate with the big market of Russia, which thus should be explored further.

Shi, who accompanied Premier Zhu Rongji on his visit to India not long ago, was impressed by the Indian market.

India's imports and exports reached US$90 billion - worth last year, of which those between China and India were only US$3.2 billion, he said.

He said that there is great potential for China to increase exports of machinery and electronic products to India.

(People's Daily January 21, 2002)