With their international competitiveness increasing, some of China's new and high-technology enterprises are expected to be listed among the world's top 500 companies within 10 years, a Chinese official said in Beijing on October 9.

Zou Dating, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology, made the prediction at the ongoing China Industrial Hi-tech Forum.

In the 1990s, the export of China's new and high-technology products maintained rapid growth, registering annual average of more than 30 percent. The year 2000 even saw the export volume of such products surpassing US$37 billion, up 50 percent and accounting for 14.9 percent of the country's total export volume as against the ratio of 12.7 percent in 1999, Zou said.

Affected by the economic recession in the United States and the world at large, China's export growth slowed down markedly in the first six months, Zou said, adding that China's export of new and high-technology products, however, totaled US$20.6 billion worth, surging 31.4 percent from the same period last year, accounting for 16.5 percent of China's total export volume.

He said high and new-technology industries have occupied an ever more important position in China's national economy.

China's electronic industry is especially worth mentioning, which already ranked the fourth in the world in 1998 in terms of output, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/10/2001)