China will continue to implement an active fiscal policy to
consolidate the sound growth momentum, Finance Minister Xiang
Huaicheng said Thursday in Honolulu.
It will issue 150
billion yuan of government bonds in 2001, for investments
in such public good areas as infrastructure, environmental
protection, science and education, he told a country presentation
program on the sidelines of the 34th annual meeting of the
Asian Development Bank's Board of Governors.
Summing up last
year's performance, Xiang said China's GDP reached 8.94 trillion
yuan, exceeding for the first time 1 trillion U.S. dollars,
or over seven times that of 1978, the year when China began
the policy of reform and opening to the outside world.
He said that in
2001, the first year of the 10th five-year plan aiming at
a 7 percent annual GDP growth, China had a good beginning.
He said that in the first quarter, GDP grew 8.1 percent and
foreign trade rose 15.9 percent totaling 113.8 billion U.S.
dollars, exceeding the 100 billion dollar mark for the first
quarter of a year.
In the meantime,
he stressed that China is ready to take effective measures
to cope with any impact that the global economic slowdown
may have on Asian economies.
China's development
is of positive regional and even global significance, the
minister said. After the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis
in 1997, China resolutely adhered to the policy of maintaining
stable RMB exchange rate and vigorously adopted an expansionary
policy that helped maintain rapid growth, thus contributing
to the recovery and restoration of the Asian economy.
China, he said,
has been working hard to reduce poverty and improve its people's
life through economic development, and thus contribute to
the United Nations' goal of global poverty reduction.
He said that in
2005 which is the last year of the 10th five- year plan, foreign
direct investment in China is expected to be 40 billion U.S.
dollars and total trade volume is projected at 680 billion
dollars.
(People's Daily
05/11/2001)
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