Official:China's Economy Develops Steadily in 2009

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce reviewed the country's economic development in 2009 during a regular press conference held in Beijing on Thursday.

The Ministry says the recovered vitality of foreign trade and domestic consumption power have contributed to the stable economic condition in China.

Chen Xi has more.

According to China's ministry of commerce, the marketing percentage of foreign trade with European countries and the U.S. has declined slightly, however, trade among of some newly-emerged markets, such as ASEAN and India, has jumped dramatically.

Yao Jian, a spokesman for the ministry, detailed the changing situation.

"Our exporting share in the traditional European and U.S. markets has dropped to 38%, which is lower than that of 2008. In addition, the multilateral trade between China, ASEAN and India has witnessed great advancement, for example, the ASEAN is now China's third largest importing origin. It shows that trade between China and neighboring countries further improves."

Influenced by macro-economic policies, the 12-month decline of China's import and export volume since 2008 turned around for the first time in November of last year.

As for domestic consumption, the 2009 growth rate of retail sales of consumer goods volume has reached its highest since 1986, accounting for over half of the whole year's economic progress.

Particularly in the country's vast countryside, the consuming capability was substantially encouraged by preferential policies, such as vehicle and home appliance subsidy program for rural areas.

Yao Jian added that the commerce ministry would continue to implement this policy.

"In 2010, we will continue the network construction in rural areas, further the integrated delivery system and reduce the sales cost in those regions. Hopefully, the prices of these products will drop."

The ministry's spokesman also said that China was the victim of trade protectionism that prevailed throughout the international markets last year.

Statistics show that China was involved in 115 cases of trade disputes concerning anti-dumping actions in 2009, to the value of nearly 13 billion U.S. dollars.

However, Yao Jian clarified China's stance was to create a fair competitive environment and properly resolve trade friction under related mechanisms of the World Trade Organization.

"I would like to reiterate China's opening-up policy. And it is willing to strengthen the cooperation with all countries under the WTO framework and certain actions will be taken to deal with trade protectionism.
We have the confidence to tackle these problems through laws and negotiations for a healthier development."

Chen Xi, CRI News