The export value of China's township enterprises is to reach 1. 27 trillion yuan (US$153 billion) by 2005, with an annual increase rate of 8 percent, said MOA sources.

At the same time, the amount of foreign funds used by Chinese township enterprises will rise by US$5 billion on a yearly basis.

To boost the development of export-oriented rural enterprises, MOA sources said, in the next five years the MOA and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation will establish a network covering major export-oriented rural enterprises, publish a number of leading export-oriented rural enterprises and recommend a number of pilot programs that guide rural enterprises to use foreign funds and invest overseas.

The information was released at a recently-concluded national conference on the development of township enterprises of China.

An official with the MOA said that economic globalization has provided more opportunities and wider room for China's township enterprises to conduct foreign trade, absorb foreign funds, adjust trade structure, and participate in international cooperation.

Statistics show that in the first half of the year, the export value of China's township enterprises was 350 billion yuan (US$42.16 billion), a rise of 14 percent on a year-on-year basis. The added industrial value of rural enterprises totaled 960 billion yuan (US$115.6 billion), up 11.4 percent.

Economists said, following its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China expects to enjoy a more stable international environment for trade and the convenience of trade and investment liberalization in other countries and regions.

However, China's agriculture and rural economy will encounter more fierce challenges as China will open its market wider in accordance with its relevant commitments to WTO entry. And the development of export-oriented rural enterprises will face some unfavorable factors such as a gloomy global economic environment and fierce competition both at home and abroad, they said.

Agricultural officials said that rural enterprises can seek development by making full use of its advantages in resources, labor and flexible mechanism and by adjusting industrial structure, such as actively cultivating processing industry of farm produce, labor-incentive industries, tertiary industry, special businesses and speeding up industrialization of agriculture.

Township enterprises have become one of the major forces and a new growth area of China's exports through years of development.

According to statistics, the export value of rural enterprises for 2000 hit 867 billion yuan (US$104.4 billion). By 2000, China's rural enterprises had established 1,765 enterprises overseas and the number of overseas-funded rural enterprises was 25,000, involving a combined investment of US$30.7 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2001)