China aims to diversify export markets

BEIJING - Agence France-Presse

A truck is driven into a shipping container area at Qingdao port, Shandong province in this file photo. REUTERS photo

China will seek to boost exports to emerging economies next year in the face of “severe challenges” caused by downturns in Europe and the United States, a senior official said yesterday.

To cushion the impact on exports, Beijing will target developing countries that are growing strongly, said Wang Shouwen, director of the commerce ministry’s foreign trade department.

“Next year I think that we will face severe challenges in our exports and imports,” Wang told reporters at the release of a white paper on foreign trade. “However, some developing and emerging economies are enjoying sound economic performances so we will attach more importance to exports to these countries.”

Leading Chinese officials have painted a gloomy picture for the country’s exports, warning that the eurozone debt crisis and sluggish recovery in the United States threatened the world’s second largest economy.

Vice Premier Wang Qishan, China’s top finance official, at the weekend urged companies to help guarantee a “stable increase” in exports amid slowing external demand.

China’s exports rose 15.9 percent year on year to $157.49 billion in October, but the total was down from $169.7 billion in September, due to falling demand caused by the economic woes in Europe and the United States.

Imports expanded 28.7 percent to $140.46 billion in October, lower than the $155.2 billion recorded a month earlier.

Wang told the news conference China would help companies in building brands, research and development and marketing to “allow them to be more competitive.”