The contribution of foreign-funded companies to China's growing exports of machinery and electronic products increased in the first half of the year.

Machinery and electronic products made up more than half of all of China's foreign trade in the first six months of 2003. Their combined import and export total rose 45.2 per cent year-on-year to US$194.49 billion, official statistics show.

An expert from the China Chamber of Commerce for the Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products said exports by Sino-foreign joint ventures accounted for a large chunk of all machinery and electronic exports.

Their exports reached US$66.5 billion in the first six months, surging by 49 per cent year-on-year, representing 69 per cent of all exports, he said.

The performance of solely foreign-funded companies is even more outstanding - their exports hit US$43.3 billion, up 57.7 per cent year-on-year.

Machinery and electronic exports to Europe grew the quickest, by 61.7 per cent, compared to 42.6 per cent in North America and 33.9 in Asia.

Three categories of products - automatic data processing equipment, consumer electronics and telecom equipment - were the major drivers of the increases, according to the expert.

Data indicates China's exports of machinery and electronic products were not impacted by the outbreak of SARS in mid-April.

But the expert said negative effects of the disease might set in the latter half of the year because companies are presently carrying out contracts signed in 2002 or at the beginning of this year.

In April, the Ministry of Commerce came up with 10 measures to try and reduce the impact of SARS on machinery and electronic exports.

One of them was to ask local trade bureaux to keep close contact with local exporters, so they could respond to problems rapidly.

Last week, a senior Chinese official said China could hit its trade targets despite the SARS crisis.

Zhang Zhigang, vice-minister of commerce, said at a working meeting of his ministry that the impact of the flu-like virus will be limited and tentative.

"The cutting edge of the Chinese economy remains unchanged," he said.

Rebounding world trade and the restructuring of industries, he noted, were conducive to China attracting more foreign direct investment and maintaining its export growth.

China has positive policies to draw investment and to help local companies invest abroad, Zhang said.

But international trade protectionism, a lagging SARS impact and the troubled market supply system will combine to have some negative impact on the country's trade and business, he said.

"However, the annual goals could be successfully completed," Zhang noted.

In the latter half of 2003, he acknowledged China will try to stimulate domestic consumption and explore new economic growth points, including automobiles, housing, telecommunications, education, health care and tourism.

(China Daily August 2, 2003)