It will issue 150 billion yuan (US$18.07 billion) of government bonds in 2001, for investments in such public good areas as infrastructure, environmental protection, science and education, he told a country presentation program on the sidelines of the 34th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank's Board of Governors.

Summing up last year's performance, Xiang said China's GDP reached 8.94 trillion yuan (more than US$1 trillion), exceeding for the first time US$1 trillion, or over seven times that of 1978, the year when China began the policy of reform and opening to the outside world.

He said that in 2001, the first year of the 10th five-year plan aiming at a 7 percent annual GDP growth, China had a good beginning. He said that in the first quarter, GDP grew 8.1 percent and foreign trade rose 15.9 percent totaling US$113.8 billion, exceeding the US$100 billion mark for the first quarter of a year.

In the meantime, he stressed that China is ready to take effective measures to cope with any impact that the global economic slowdown may have on Asian economies.

China's development is of positive regional and even global significance, the minister said. After the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, China resolutely adhered to the policy of maintaining stable RMB exchange rate and vigorously adopted an expansionary policy that helped maintain rapid growth, thus contributing to the recovery and restoration of the Asian economy.

China, he said, has been working hard to reduce poverty and improve its people's life through economic development, and thus contribute to the United Nations' goal of global poverty reduction.

He said that in 2005 which is the last year of the 10th Five-Year Plan, foreign direct investment in China is expected to be US$40 billion and total trade volume is projected at US$680 billion.

(Xinhua 05/11/2001)