According to sources from a working conference on July 9, township enterprises, a new growth point to China's foreign trade, recorded an annual 10% export growth during the past "9th Five-year Plan" period, with an export amount worth 695 billion yuan in 2000, taking one third of China's export.
Vice Minister of Agriculture Qi Jingfa told that township enterprises in China have developed and become much stronger in terms of their export amount after the Asian financial crises and a demand recession of domestic and foreign markets. As is being now reported, they have already achieved an export rise of 65% over that at the end of the "8th Five-year Plan" period, showing a three-fold growth in the past five years. When striving for a raise of product quality, level and competitive edge of exports they see to it that hi-tech exports as electronics, communication and biological products are put out.
Some township enterprises, backed by their economic strength, have even set their eyes on investment abroad. Statistics show that by the end of 2000, there were 25,000 joint ventures launched by township enterprises with foreign investors or firms from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan with investment of 30.7 billion yuan. Meanwhile, they have invested accumulatively 16 billion yuan in establishing 1,765 enterprises abroad.
(People's Daily 07/10/2001)
