Chinese walker

Speech at China West Forum 2001
SUN Zhenyu,
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation

(Xi’an, September 5th， 2001)

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

In the golden autumn, I am very happy to welcome the distinguished guests
to China West Forum 2001 in the ancient capital Xi’an, an age-old and mysterious
city full of dynamism of the modern era. Taking this opportunity, I would
like to brief you on the new opportunities for foreign investment in the
west after China joins the WTO. I hope that foreign businesspeople could
take part in the development of western regions more actively to advance
the economic and social development of the vast western areas.

Ladies and gentlemen,

China has gone through a journey of 15 years in order to first resume the
contracting party status in GATT and later to enter the WTO. The twists
and turns over the past 15 years have been deeply embedded in the minds
of the Chinese people and witnessed by each and every foreign friend who
cares for and supports China’s cause of modernization. However, it is a
comfort to see that China’s accession to the WTO has been noticeably accelerated
with the concerted efforts of various relevant parties over recent years.

In May and June this year, China held consultations and reached comprehensive
consensus with US and EU on the outstanding issues in the multilateral
negotiation of China’s WTO accession. In early and mid July, the WTO held
the 16th and 17th sessions of the China Working Party Meeting, at which
the substantive negotiation on China’s WTO entry was concluded with the
drafting of the Protocol, Working Party Report and other multilateral legal
documents regarding China’s WTO accession completed. I believe at the 18th
Working Party Meeting to be convened in September, all the legal documents
on China’s accession will be eventually adopted and submitted to the WTO
General Council for review, thus wrapping up the historic mission of the
WTO Working Party on China. Hard endeavor of 15 years is about to turn
China’s entry to the WTO into a reality.

Ladies and gentlemen,

FDI absorption constitutes an important component of China’s basic state
policy of reform and opening up. As the reform and opening up going into
depth over the past two decades and more, China has been constantly improving
its FDI utilization in terms of scale and quality. As of the end of July
2001, China had cumulatively approved 378,000 foreign funded enterprises
with a contractual value of USD 717.01 billion, of which USD 372.83 billion
had been actually paid in.

China has maintained a good momentum in its FDI attraction since this year.
January through July, 14,000 foreign-invested enterprises were approved
to establish, 18.2% higher than the corresponding period of last year,
the contractual value of foreign investment grew by 45.8% to USD 40.29
billion and the actually utilized value climbed by 21.7% to USD 24.21 billion.

While the FDI absorption of the eastern areas is growing at a rapid speed,
the western regions have also made obvious headway in its FDI attraction.
Up to the end of June 2001, the project number, contractual value and actually
utilized value of FDI in the west accounted for 7.3%, 6% and 5.3% of the
national total. In the first 6 months of this year, 742 new foreign invested
enterprises were set up in the western regions with the contractual value
amounting to USD 1.91 billion and actually utilized value, USD 710 million.

Joining the WTO is an inherent requirement of China’s development of its
socialist market economy which also complies with the objective trend of
the world economic progress, and it will bring about unprecedented opportunities
to the economic and trade cooperation between China and various countries
and regions in the world. After becoming a member of the WTO, China will
open service areas such as banking, insurance, telecommunication, foreign

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