China's average per capita GDP will reach US$2,400 by 2010, a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Monday.

Addressing the ongoing 14th World Productivity Congress (WPC) in Shenyang, capital of northeastern Liaoning Province, Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the NDRC, said that based on current exchange rates, China's GDP will reach US$3.2 trillion in 2010.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's GDP exceeded US$2.2 trillion in 2005, ranking it fourth in the world, after the US, Japan and Germany.

However, per capita GDP was only US$1,703 last year, a lowly 110th in the world rankings.

Experts said that despite impressive GDP figures, China's economy still faces several challenges including low efficiency, low levels of technology, and low added value.

China's GDP accounts for five percent of global GDP, yet it consumes between 25 and 40 percent of the world's crude coal, iron ore, steel, alumina and cement.

Only three out of 10,000 Chinese enterprises have owned the intellectual property rights to their core technologies; 99 percent of Chinese firms have no patents; and 60 percent do not have their own brands.

Zhang said that China intends to bolster efforts to transform its economic growth model during the 11th Five-year Plan period -- 2006 to 2010 -- by improving its industrial structure and developing science and education capabilities.

(Xinhua News Agency October 9, 2006)