China's commerce achievements take opening-up to higher level

The Press Center for the Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China held its fifth press conference on China's efforts to advance opening-up to a higher level and promote high-quality development of commerce on Sunday.

The Press Center for the Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China held its fifth press conference on China's efforts to advance opening-up to a higher level and promote high-quality development of commerce on Sunday. [Photo: IC]

Great achievements of commerce

China scored great achievements in the field of commerce over the past 70 years, Zhong Shan, the minister of commerce said.

The country has been the world's biggest consumer market as total retail sales of consumer goods surged to 38.1 trillion yuan (5.35 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2018, compared with 2.77 billion yuan in 1952, showing an annual growth rate of 11.6 percent, said Zhong, noting that consumption is the first engine of higher economic growth in the country.

China's import and export volume in 2018 stood at 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars, becoming the world's largest trading nation and very far away from the 1.13 billion U.S. dollars registered in 1950. Now, imports and exports drive employment for more than 180 million people, with private companies becoming the main force of foreign trade.

China has become increasingly appealing to foreign investors, posting a record 139 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, despite a 13 percent year-on-year decrease in global FDI flows.

Zhong Shan, Chinese minister of commerce. [Photo: VCG]

As the second-biggest investment destination, the accumulated use of foreign capital in China was 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars, and there were 960,000 foreign-funded enterprises by the end of last year.

In 2018, China's overseas investment reached 143 billion U.S. dollars. And the outward FDI stock by the end of 2018 was nearly two trillion U.S. dollars with 43,000 Chinese enterprises going abroad.

Further efforts on trade liberalization have seen the establishment of 17 free trade agreements (FTAs) with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) receiving positive responses from more than 160 countries, regions and international organizations.

New round of China-U.S. trade talks approaching

A week after the National Day, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will lead a delegation to the United States for the 13th round of China-U.S. high-level trade consultations, according to Wang Shouwen, Chinese vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative.

Wang Shouwen, Chinese vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative. [Photo: VCG]

Wang expects that the two countries can move forward in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, with both sides accommodating each other's legitimate concerns, which benefits not only the two countries but also the world.

On September 19 and 20, China and the United States held vice ministerial-level trade talks, and conducted constructive discussions on economic and trade issues of mutual concern.