China will balance imports and exports as well as foreign investment absorption and China's overseas investments during the 12th Five-Year Plan" period, Chen Deming, China's Minister of Commerce, said at the "China Development Forum 2011" on March 20. Opening China further to the outside world will become the new driver of China's economic development mode.

Meanwhile, Chen said, in the next five to 10 years, China will gradually reach a balance between capital's "in" and "out."

Half global economic growth

This year is the first year of China's 12th Five-year Plan and also the 10th year since China entered the WTO.

Chen said, in the past decade, through continuous learning, China has been gradually getting to know better about WTO regulations and learning how to better abide by these regulations. Gradually, China has grown up into a participant and driving force of the WTO regulations.

China made arduous efforts during this process by cleaning up more than 3,000 laws, regulations and department rules, cutting average tariffs from 15.3 percent to 9.8 percent, and opening more than 100 service sectors to the outside world.

In the first days after China entered the WTO, some WTO members doubted China's ability to fulfill its promises. "We have given the answer through our actions," said Chen Deming.

WTO' Director-General Pascal Lamy appraised China's fulfillment of its promises as "A+." This is a confirmation of China's achievements and also an encouragement.

Three decades ago, China's contribution to global economic growth only accounted for 3 percent while in 2009 and 2010, it surpassed 50 percent. WTO said in its third trade policy reviews that China "played a constructive role" in stimulating global demand and "made an important contribution" to world economic stability.

"We will carry on with the courage and determination we showed a decade ago and implement more active opening strategies so as to promote development, reform and innovation through opening up to the outside world," Chen said.

Trade surplus proportion keeps falling

On topics of foreign trade, Chen said China will quicken structural adjustment, focus on the nurturing of emerging industries able to take part in international competition and cooperation, and strive to maintain stable export growth. Meanwhile China is paying greater attention to the role of imports in balancing macro economy and economic structural adjustment. China's export is an important driving force of global economic growth and has made a great contribution to balancing world economic development.

In 2010, The United State's exports to China rose by 32.2 percent while those of the European Union rose 30.2 percent and Japan 36.6 percent, much higher than the growth of their imports from China. Chen said, in the future, China will continue to increase imports from least developed countries and major countries contributing to China's trade surplus.

It is hoped countries having a huge trade deficit with China will relax controls over exports to China, to create a good policy environment for the balanced development of bilateral trade.

China's foreign trade is moving towards greater balance. "It is our prediction that China's annual trade surplus's proportion to GDP will be lower than last year's 3.1 percent," Chen said.

Chinese enterprises should enjoy equal access

For quite some time, foreigners have entertained doubt about China's investment environment, and have even asked if China no longer welcomes foreign capital.

Chen said while transforming its economic development mode and boosting domestic demand, China would not reject foreign capital. Instead, capital would be made to play a more active role. China would develop hand-in-hand with global capital and enjoy common prosperity.

Chen said, in recent years China had gradually cancelled part of the favorable tax polices for foreign ventures in China and they were treated equally as their Chinese counterparts. This is a necessary demand of fair economic competition in a market economy.

Not long ago, China announced foreign capital mergers and acquisition censorship. China will not set up new thresholds or administrative licensing procedures, but will consult international practices to make policies more transparent, fair and operable. China's innovation-encouraging policies cover all enterprises within its borders and also legally established foreign ventures here. In terms of government purchasing, China will adopt fair and transparent methods to treat domestic and foreign enterprises and products equally.

Chen also said China would pay more attention to "going out" and try to reach a balance between "absorption" and "going out." In 2003, China's foreign direct investments in other countries was only $2.8 billion while in 2010, the amount rose to $59 billion, which was 60 percent of the year's absorption of foreign investments in China. It's expected in the next five to 10 years, China will gradually realize the balance between capital "coming in and going out."

Chen Deming siad it was hoped other countries would improve their investment environment and offer Chinese businesses equal access, and protect Chinese enterprises, institutions and people's legitimate rights.