China should account for 15% of global trade

NANJING - As the second-largest economy, and with a fifth of the world's population, China should account for 15 percent of global trade volume, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming has said.

"China's population accounts for 19 percent of the global population while its current trade volume is only 10.4 percent of that of the world, so it will be totally fine for China's trade to be 15 percent of the world's," Chen said at an economic meeting held in east China's Jiangsu province on Monday.

China's trade in 2012 is more balanced than in 2011, with trade surplus accounting for a mere 2.8 percent of the national gross domestic product in the first few months of the year, according to Chen.

The commerce minister said that, given the current economic difficulties worldwide, global economic development is on a slow track and economic recovery is in a turbulent and uncertain period, so China's stable growth will be a positive contribution to the world.

He is also positive about a soft landing for the Chinese economy. "For China's economy to change from a relatively fast development speed to a comparatively slower and more stable speed is highly possible," Chen said.

In the next decade, China will continue to open up, so as to promote development, reform and innovation and put economic growth in terms of domestic consumption and export on an equal footing, Chen told attendees of the meeting.