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BIZCHINA / Statistics
Trade and investment boom
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-20 09:26
In the past four years, the n
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BIZCHINA / Statistics
Trade and investment boom
By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-20 09:26
Between 2003 and 2006, US$29.3 billion of foreign capital poured into
manufacturing in the sectors of communications equipment, computers and
electronics. But foreign IT giants are looking beyond China as a
manufacturing base and setting up research and development centers in the
country.
Foreign-invested companies have become part of the Chinese economy, and
play the most active part in the country as it faces up to global
competition, said Wang Zhile, director of the Multinational Enterprise
Research Center under the Ministry of Commerce.
Foreign-invested companies contribute a third of China's industrial
output, a fifth of the tax revenue and 20 million jobs.
With new regulations on mergers and acquisitions of Chinese businesses by
foreign investors, the practice has become an important way to attract
foreign investment and help domestic firms access advanced technologies
and management expertise.
Branching out
Chinese companies have made remarkable progress over the past four years
in overseas investment since the government began encouraging qualified
firms to do so.
China's outward investment is a "win-win" strategy, as the capital flow
not only creates jobs at the investment destination and boosts the local
economy, but also helps Chinese firms to diversify the origin of their
products and thus avoid trade conflicts, the NBS said.
By the end of 2006 there were 30,000 Chinese-funded companies in 160
countries and regions with an accumulated foreign investment of $75
billion.
Chen Lin, deputy director of the commerce ministry's foreign economic
cooperation department, predicted China's outward investment will speed
up as the country's economic growth remains steady and foreign investment
is high.
"We expected the country's outward investment to reach $60 billion during
the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10). Now we believe the actual
figure will be much higher than that," he said.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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ation has become the world's third-largest
trader, the 13th-biggest foreign investor and a major target for overseas
funds.
Boosted by steady global economic growth and fast expansion and reform of
its trade system, China's imports and exports have seen robust
development since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of
China convened in 2002, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said
yesterday.
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China's foreign trade expanded nearly 30 percent on average in the past
four years, with exports increasing 31.3 percent annually and imports
increasing 28 percent annually. This has brought the country's trade
volume in goods to US$1.76 trillion last year from $620.8 billion in 2002.
In 2006, exports rose by 27 percent year-on-year to US$969 billion, while
imports climbed 20 percent to US$791.6 billion. The total trade volume
grew 23.8 percent from a year earlier.
According to the World Trade Organization, China went from being the
fifth-largest trader by volume in 2002 to the third-largest in 2004.
The nation has encouraged companies to climb the industrial chain since
2002, by improving exports in hi-tech products, cultivating brands and
strengthening research and development. This policy has helped Chinese
firms sharpen their competitive edge in the household electronic
equipment and information sector. Electronic and machinery as well as
hi-tech products are gradually replacing labor-intensive light industrial
goods to become China's major exports.
Bilateral trade
Meanwhile, the nation is actively involved in regional economic
cooperation and bilateral trade.
China has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with the ASEAN, Chile and
Pakistan. It is negotiating with another six economies, including
Iceland, New Zealand and Singapore, and doing a feasibility study on
similar agreements with India, South Korea and Peru, according to the NBS.
The country's optimized investment environment has continued to attract
strong interest from foreign investors in the past four years.
In 2002, foreign direct investment (FDI) in China exceeded US$50 billion
for the first time and has increased steadily since. The figure in
China's non-financial sectors was US$63 billion last year.
China had accumulated US$703.9 billion in actual foreign direct
investment by the end of last year.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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