Full transcript of policy briefing of the State Council on Jan 16, 2015

Zhong Shan:

Second, China's foreign trade saw steady and healthy growth.

China is a major trader, and trade played an even bigger role in buttressing economic growth. It is estimated that the contribution of foreign trade to China's economic growth in 2014 would be around 10.5 percent.

Foreign trade in 2014 had the following features.

1. The share of China's trade in global commerce saw further growth. Combined imports and exports amounted to $4.3 trillion for the year, up 3.4 percent from the previous year. Exports chalked up $2.34 trillion, up by 6.1 percent, and imports reached $1.96 trillion, up by 0.4 percent. When we talked about barring non-comparable factors, people asked us what these factors were? In fact, through arbitraging in exports, some enterprises faked a larger trade volume than what they actually had over the past years. Therefore, we barred these factors this year, and the annual growth rate of import and exports reached 6.1 percent, of which exports grew by 8.7 percent and imports by 3.3 percent. Growing faster than any other major economy, China maintained its position as the world's largest trader of goods. It is estimated that the global share of China's exports reached 12.2 percent in 2014.

2. China's trade increasingly contributed to its own economy and to the world's. Last year, the imports and exports of high-added-value products grew rapidly. The imports and exports of complete plant equipment and high-technology products especially rose. At the same time, imports of consumer goods increased rapidly by 14.9 percent, contributing not only to the fast and healthy development of China's trade, but also to the growth of the world economy.

3. Trade structure was further optimized. We have stepped up efforts in changing foreign trade patterns and adjusting its structure, especially regarding the international market layout, regional layout at home, the structure of foreign trade entities, product structure of foreign trade, and foreign trade patterns. We have made achievements and China's foreign trade became more competitive, steady and capable of continuing its healthy development.

4. Trade in services grew rapidly. It is estimated that the total value of services imported and exported would exceed $580 billion for the year, up by over 10 percent year-on-year.

Zhong Shan:

Third, the level of foreign investment continued to rise.

China has become the world's second-largest recipient of foreign investment. Foreign investment plays an important role in promoting China's economic growth, industrial restructuring and technological upgrading. The Chinese government attaches great importance in attracting foreign investment.

Attraction of foreign investment in 2014 had the following features.

1. The scale of foreign investment grew steadily. In 2014, China's actual use of foreign investment stood at $119.6 billion, registering an increase of 1.7 percent over the previous year, growing faster than other major economies including the US and Europe. China has been the largest recipient of foreign investment among developing countries for 23 consecutive years.

2. The structure of foreign investment utilization has been further optimized. The services sector has attracted more foreign investment, accounting for as much as 55.4 percent of the total, 22 percentage points higher than that for the manufacturing industry. The geographical distribution of foreign investment is more reasonable. Central and western China attracted increasingly large-scale foreign investment. Central China has witnessed an increase of 7.5 percent in the utilization of foreign investment, and the figure is far higher than the national average.

3. Major achievements were obtained in running the pilot free trade zone. We have made great efforts to develop the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, established an investment management system based on pre-establishment national treatment plus the negative list, and improved the foreign investment climate. Based on the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, it was decided at the end of last year that another three pilot free trade zones would be established in Guangdong province, Tianjin municipality and Fujian province.