Export growth slows down in Shanghai
( 2001-08-11 09:43 ) (8 )

For three consecutive months, Shanghai, the business and commercial centre of China, has reported a slowdown in export growth.

Statistics show that the growth rate in exports dropped sharply from April's 20 percent to 3 percent in May, and the figures for June and July stood at merely 2.9 percent and 4.4 percent respectively. The total export value in the first seven months of the year were US$15.89 billion, rising 15.01 percent.

In the first half of this year, exports to the United States witnessed the smallest growth rate compared with other major target markets including Japan, the EU and Hong Kong.

Director Zhu Xiaoming of the Shanghai municipal economic and trade commission attributed this to a reduction in US market demand, pressure from some Asian and African countries who lowered their exchange rates, and a lack of competitiveness from domestic products.

Compared with foreign-financed and privately owned enterprises, state-owned companies clinched the lowest export growth rate. This shows that the reform of state-owned enterprises will be a central task in the future, said Zhu.

This year's export target for Shanghai has been set at US$28 billion, a tough task considering the consistent slowdown.

Meanwhile, a series of measures have been taken to reverse the trend, including strongly supporting notebook PC manufacturers from Taiwan, Japan and the United States, lowering the threshold for dealing with foreign trade business, stipulating a series of encouraging policies for finance, tax, customs, and quarantine, and exploring the markets of Russia, Africa, the Middle-East, Latin America, and southeast Asia.