Wu vows opener economic system
By Xu Binglan (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-28 07:38

China has established a market-oriented economic system and will continue to make the system more mature, Vice-Premier Wu Yi said yesterday.

The country is also determined to make its currency fully convertible although the time is still not ripe for doing so, she told delegates to the 37th International General Meeting of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, which opened yesterday in Beijing.

"The market supply-demand relationship has become the decisive factor for enterprises' operations (in China)," she said.

"It is a reality everybody can see that China has established its market economic system and is moving towards a more dynamic and more open economic system," the vice-premier added.

She also said that China's current foreign exchange rate system is consistent with its economic development level, its financial regulatory capability and enterprises' capabilities' in coping with changes in the foreign exchange market.

"This system is conducive to China's financial and economic stability and it is conducive to the economies of the Asia-Pacific regional and the world economies," she said.

But Wu emphasized that China will continue on the path of financial reforms and will make the renminbi fully convertible eventually.

Wu provided some compelling statistics to underline her point that China's development delivers opportunities to the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Last year, she said, China imported goods worth US$273 billion from Asian countries, which represented 42.4 per cent increase year-on-year.

During the past three years, US exports to the rest of the world grew a mere 9 per cent. But its exports to China soared 76 per cent.

The Pacific Basin Economic Council is a non-governmental organization of the business circles of the Asia-Pacific region. Established in 1967, it now has 20 members, covering most major economies of the region.

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