Lois Dougan Tretiak, organizer and vice-president of Economist Conference, said that China's economy keeps growing with an annualrate of seven percent, which greatly stimulates the demand for logistics.

China's accession to the World Trade Organization will also increase its import and export and bring new opportunities to the logistics sector.

The influx of foreign capital and multinational logistics enterprises in the Chinese market will prompt China to meet the practice worldwide, and modernize the country's logistics, said Men Xiaowei, a senior economist with the State Economic and Trade Commission.

Lowering costs and strengthening competitiveness have become the internal driving force for China's logistics sector. The development of e-business will also take logistics to a new level.

With the influx of foreign capital into China, the part of logistics market which serves foreign-funded and non-governmental companies will be the first to make progress, Men said.

Yang Qing, an official with the Cummins Corporation, said China's strategic development of its western regions will generate an increase in merchandise exchange among China's western, central and eastern areas.

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2002)