China to reduce its trade growth
Chinanews, Beijing, Oct. 13 ¨C The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has mapped out China¡¯s trade prospect for the eleventh five-year period. According to this plan, by 2010, the total trade volume will reach 2.3 trillion US dollars, increasing by 10% on a yearly basis, but far lower than the 24% actual annual trade growth rate during the tenth five-year period.
A person in charge at MOC explained that during the eleventh five-year period, China would no longer maintain the trade scale.
¡°If we set the figures too high, we won¡¯t be able to focus on the quality of the trade,¡± he said.
For many years, the high trade volume had been backed by large quantities of processing trade, which occurred in China because global economy had shifted its manufacturing base to China. After ten years of high growth, it is expected that such processing trade volume will begin to slow down. On the other hand, China¡¯s high foreign trade growth is largely prompted by its huge export volume, which is driven by a strong demand in the international market. After a certain number of years, such strong demand will also become weaker.
In order to realize the new trade goal, MOC will encourage more private enterprises to explore the international market. It is expected that by 2010, export volume contributed by private enterprises will account for 35% of the total export volume in China, while in 2005, private enterprises accounted for only 20% of the total export volume in China.