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

Zhong Shan:

The question you asked is also one that bothers me a lot. One of the most important reasons for the slump in growth in foreign trade is the decreased import growth rate. There are many reasons for such a decreased rate.

The first I think is the situation of rising quantities and falling prices of imported products. China's imported goods did not decrease last year, yet the cut in prices caused a decrease of total trading volume. This is, I think an important reason. The second is that some countries limited the export of high-tech products to China, which also lead to a reduction in our imports.

In the future, China will continue to pay attention to increasing imports. The government has released policies encouraging imports. We will continue to explore how to improve the environment and conditions for imports in the new year, and continue to promote import facilitation. China is a country with large export and import volumes. We think import expansion not only meets with China's economic and social development, but also contributes to world economic development.

In the next several years, China may import goods worth over $2 trillion every year. Some may say that China mainly imports resources. This is not so. In fact China imports resources as well as technology, and the commodities that Chinese residents need as well. I just told you that the growth rate of commodities China imported last year reached 14.9 percent. I predict that the rate of commodity import growth will accelerate starting from this year, and the scale will expand.

I often tell my foreign friends that China has a large market with a 1.3 billion population. We will widen opening up and welcome entrepreneurs from different countries to strengthen cooperation with China.

Thank you.

National Broadcasting Company:

First, just now, Vice-Chairman Zhu mentioned about improving income distribution and enhancing the development of the western areas. Could you talk about the development of Xinjiang? In recent years have there been any policies that fasten the economic development of Xinjiang?

Second, many news reports mentioned that the crisis in the Chinese real estate may be a big challenge. How do you see that problem? Will it be a big factor that may influence the economic development? Thank you.