Xiong Xingmei, a professor of economics with the Nankai University, said the capacity of many Chinese industries have not been fully utilized, while the seven trillion yuan in private bank deposits means there is enough social idle funds to support economic growth.

With continued improving standards of life for China's 1.3 billion people and accelerated industrialization and urbanization, strong domestic demands will continue to drive up economic growth, he said.

Economist and CPPCC member Xiao Zhuoji said China will run into some difficulties in foreign trade this year, but counter measures are being taken.

Export in January has beat the general expectation and turned out to be quite satisfactory, he said.

Xiao said he believes the nation's economy will be able to maintain the seven percent growth, or even higher.

Zhang Sai, former head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said the possibility of a relatively high growth is very high.

"Continued robust growth in recent years has given China unprecedented physical wealth. There is no fear of grain shortage. Actually there is enough supply for any commodity one could think of," he said.

In term of financial strength, the country's fiscal revenue increased by 240 billion yuan in 2001 to hit 1.6 trillion yuan. Foreign reserve gained by 46.6 billion U.S. dollars to stand at

210 billion dollars by the year-end.

All these have laid a solid foundation for future economic growth, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2002)