China signed new air traffic agreements with 12 nations in 2003, including Austria, Australia, the Netherlands, France and Japan.

China opened the fifth air traffic rights this year, which helped to reduce the high demand for exports in some cities, said Yang Yuanyuan, director general of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

He said that China formally signed an aviation agreement for the first time with Iceland this year, and renewed agreements with Ethiopia and Nepal.

China also actively participated in the International Civil Aviation Organization conference and the China-ASEAN transportation ministers' meeting. Meanwhile, China's airline companies signed code-share agreements with foreign airlines.

Yang said that China's aviation industry gave approval to six foreign investment companies, and utilized 110 million US dollars-worth of foreign capital, up 28 percent over last year.

For the first time in the past half century, six Taiwan airline companies were authorized to fly from Shanghai via Hong Kong or Macao to Taiwan, transporting nearly 2,500 passengers back to their native places during the Spring Festival early this year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2003)