China encourages companies to go global in past five years

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), China started to encourage domestic companies to invest overseas and cooperate with counterparts in other countries and regions.

The country has made remarkable progress in implementing its "going global" strategy, which was first put forward by the government during the 10th Five-Year Plan period, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce.

During the past five years, China set up some overseas production bases of crude oil and mineral resources, helping the country to ease the energy and raw material shortage caused by the soaring economy.

During the past five years, China had more than 30,000 enterprises engaged in multinational services, more than 1,800 enterprises with overseas contracted projects and 600 enterprises with overseas labor cooperation, the ministry said.

In 2004, 16 Chinese companies were listed in world's Top 500, and 49 Chinese enterprises were among the world's Top 225 international contractors, according to figures from the ministry.

By the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan period, more than 10,000 Chinese-funded enterprises had been set up overseas, with signed contracted projects worth US$181.1 billion and signed labor cooperation volume of US$40.1 billion, according to the ministry.

China imports advanced technology worth US$70 billion in past five years

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), China imported advanced technology worth US$70 billion, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce.

The figure accounts for about 30 percent of China's total technology import since the start of reform and opening-up at the end of 1970s, the ministry said.

Thanks for such technology importation, China's technological level and production capacity in power, metallurgy and petrochemical industry have been lifted up remarkably, the ministry said.

China signed a total of 9,902 technology import contracts in 2005, up 15.1 percent year on year, according to the ministry.

The contracted volume was amounted to US$19.05 billion, up 37.5 percent year on year, US$11.83 billion of which were technology fees, accounting for 62.1 percent.

In 2005, the European Union became the first source for China's technology import, which was followed by Japan and the United States.

China signed technology import contracts worth US$9.07 billion with the European Union, up 46.6 percent. China imported technology worth US$3.85 billion and US$3.4 billion from Japan and the United States in 2005.

China's high-tech export grows fast in past five years

China's export of high-tech products has been growing at an average annual rate of 43.5 percent during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce.

In 2000, China's export of high-tech products was only US$35.03 billion, but in 2005, the figure was close to US$220 billion, accounting for more than 28 percent of China's total export, the ministry said.

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period, China's export of high-tech products exceeded US$600 billion, more than five times of that in the ninth Five-Year Plan period.

By the end of 2005, China had more than 300 enterprises, each with an annual export volume of high-tech products exceeding US$100 million, the ministry said.

China has established 25 export bases of high-tech products, six national software export bases and six national export bases of medical products, so as to boost the export of high-tech products, the ministry said.

China's export of machinery, electronic products ranks fourth globally

China's export of machinery and electronic products, growing at an average annual rate of 32.2 percent for the past five years, now ranks the fourth in the world after Germany, the United States and Japan, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce.

During the ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), China's export of machinery and electronic products only accounted for 3.4 percent of the global trade of such products, but in the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), the ratio rose to 8.5 percent, the ministry said.

In 2005, China had nearly 70,000 exporters of machinery and electronic products, more than twice of that by the end of the ninth Five-Year Plan period.

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period, China's export of machinery and electronic products exceeded US$1,250 billion, 893.6 billion more than the ninth Five-Year Plan period. In 2005, the export of machinery and electronic products hit a record high of US$425 billion, four times of that in 2000.

The export of machinery and electronic products now accounts for 55.5 percent of China's total export, 13 percentage points higher than that during the ninth Five-Year Plan period, the ministry said. m

China accelerates pace on FTA establishment in past five years

The past five years has witnessed China's readiness to establish free trade areas (FTAs) with various trade partners, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce.

By far, China has been talking with 27 countries and regions on the establishment of nine FTAs, covering one fourth of China's total trade, said the ministry.

In 2005, China signed an FTA cargo trade agreement with Chile, an agreement on an "early harvest" program with Pakistan for their future FTA establishment, and started an all-round tariff reduction process with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Besides, China has also launched FTA negotiations with southern Africa, Latin America and South Asia.

China is also conferring with Gulf countries, New Zealand and Australia about FTA construction. The Chinese mainland has implemented a Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) with Hong Kong and Macao.

Chinese enterprises invest US$18 billion overseas from 2002 to 2005

From 2002 to 2005, Chinese enterprises invested some US$18 billion overseas, up 36 percent annually on average.

The overseas direct investment from Chinese enterprises surpassed USS$50 billion by the end of 2005, according to statistics released by China's Ministry of Commerce.

In 2005, China's investment overseas jumped 130 percent to US$6.5 billion, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.

China's overseas investment, project contract and labor cooperation appeared in nearly 200 nations and regions, and were involved in manufacturing, construction, transportation, electric communication and agriculture.

From 2001 to 2005, China altogether sent more than 3 million workers to other parts of the world, and set up 646 processing enterprises in 86 countries and regions.

Multinational merging also became an important method of China's direct foreign investment. Research and development centers, as well as industrial centers emerged overseas.

China uses FDI of US$274 billion for five years

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), China actually used foreign direct investment (FDI) worth US$274 billion, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.

During the five years, the used FDI in China averaged at US$50 billion per year, ranking the third in the world and the first among all developing countries, the ministry said.

More FDI has been flowing to China's service industry. In 2005 the contracted foreign investment in the service sector totaled US$21.8 billion, up 38 percent year on year.

Over 24 million Chinese people are working in foreign-funded enterprises, making up more than 10 percent of the country's total urban employees.

China's coastal area still attracts most overseas investment, witnessing a growth rate of 2.59 percent in 2005.

Hong Kong is still the main source of overseas investment flowing into the Chinese mainland, and the European Union's investment in China is growing very fast.

China's foreign trade growing at annual rate of 24 percent for five years

During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), China's import and export volume has been growing at an average annual rate of 24 percent, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.

In 2001, China's foreign trade volume only stood at US$509.6 billion, ranking the seventh in the world, but in 2005, the figure jumped to US$1,400 billion, ranking the third in the world.

Due to continuous trade surplus for years, China's foreign exchange reserve has exceeded US$800 billion.

The ratio of machinery, electronic goods and high-tech products in total trade has been growing all the time, and in 2005, the trade of such products surged 33.3 percent year on year, customs figures show.

About 86 million Chinese are working in fields related to foreign trade, figures show.

China's high-tech products export to US, EU exceeds US$100 billion

Chinese mainland's high-tech products export to the United States, Hong Kong and European Union (EU) exceeded US$150 billion in 2005, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

The sum included US$52.04 billion, US$51.26 billion and US$49.94 billion respectively to the three regions.

The export volume of high-tech products to the three regions accounted for 31.3 percent, 39.9 percent and 33.4 percent of the mainland's total export.

The ratios increased by 14 percentage points, 21 percentage points and 12 percentage points respectively over those in 2000.

Currently, China's high-tech products are mainly imported from Asia and exported to the United States and European Union. Up to 87.6 percent of the mainland's high-tech products are traded with the European Union, the United States, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Republic of Korea. The European Union remains the largest trade partner in the Chinese mainland's high-tech products. The bilateral trade volume of high-tech products with the European Union reached US$69.35 billion in 2005, ahead of the United States, which had a bilateral trade volume of US$68.15 billion.

The Chinese mainland's first four partners of importing high-tech products are the ASEAN, Japan, Taiwan and Republic of Korea with an import volume accounting for 63.4 percent of the total.

The ASEAN remained China's largest source of high-tech products in 2005. China imported US$40.13 billion of high-tech products, mainly integrated circuits, from the ASEAN last year. m

China's export of cyber-products breaks US$100 billion mark

China's export of cyber-products has exceeded US$100 billion for the first time, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.

The total export figure reached US$104.84 billion in 2005.

Export volume of notebook PCs, LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), ICs (Integrated Circuits) and HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) totaled US$29.9 billion, US$14.54 billion, US$14.01 billion and US$4.11 billion respectively, up 43.9 percent, 22.6 percent, 30.9 percent and 51.6 percent from the previous year.

In 2005, the proportion of cyber-products from China's total export volume increased to 13.7 percent from 7.9 percent in 2001.

The ministry's statistics also showed that the export of communication products reached US$72.28 billion and electronic products hit US$24.48 billion, up 37.8 percent and 32.7 percent respectively from last year.

In 2005, the scale of China's high-tech industry was expected to reach 3.3 trillion yuan (US$412 billion), up 780 billion yuan and accounting for 5.2 percent of the gross domestic product.

According to the ministry, there were 300 high-tech firms in China with an annual export volume of over US$100 million last year, and 50 firms with an annual export volume of more than US$1 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2006)