The Hindu Business Line : China keen on FTA to boost trade ties

Mr Mu Guo Sheng, Vice-Chairman, CCPIT, Dalian Sub-Council of China, exchanging MoU papers with the Confederation of Indian Industry represented by Mr M.K. Patodia at the `China - A India Opportunity', in Hyderabad on Wednesday. On left are Mr Wang Jinzhen, Assistant Chairman of CCPIT, and Mr Sutirtha Bhattacharya, Commissioner of Industries, Andhra Pradesh. — P.V. Sivakumar

Hyderabad , Aug. 10

CHINA has called for quickening of pace to create Sino-Indian free trade area (FTA) to trigger growth in bilateral trade.

Mr Wang Jinzhen, Assistant Chairman of CCPIT (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade), said FTA could be a way to increase the trade volumes that were too small considering the sizes of the two countries.

The FTA, when created, would cover two-fifths of world's population.

He was addressing the inaugural of the conference on `China - A India opportunity', organised by the CII today.

Talking on the evolution of China's economy into the seventh largest one in the world, he said country's Gross Domestic Product grew to $1.649 trillion in 2004 from $140 billion in 1978, showing an annual growth rate of 9.4 per cent all through.

China's export and import volumes grew to $1.14 trillion from $20.6 billion during the same period.

On the foreign investment front, the country had approved foreign-invested projects worth $1.16 trillion by May 2005. "Of this, the country could realise $584 billion," he said.

China's foreign exchange reserves crossed $711 billion by June 2005, 51 per cent more than the same period last year. "We expect this to cross the $900-billion mark by the year end, overtaking Japan as number one in the list of countries with high foreign exchange reserves," he said.

Outwards too, China has made strides. "By the end of 2004, China invested in 7,000 projects worth $36.8 billion in non-financial sectors abroad," Mr Wang said.

This, he reminded, included the high-profile acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo.

Opening up of economy and improved business environment helped China achieve these high growth rates.

Huge domestic market and rapid urbanisation too helped.

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