China will continue to strengthen the domestic market, enhance high-level trading, and ensure high-quality investment growth in 2020, the Minister of Trade said on Sunday.
Speaking at the year-end meeting of the ministry, trade minister Zhong Shan outlined key goals for the next year's anticipated development and growth.
He said the country should reinvigorate its efforts to "build a the strong domestic market, open up trade channels to the outside world at a higher-level, encourage high-quality trading and turn the economy into a major powerhouse for global business and trade."
He said these movements will contribute in all respects to building a moderately prosperous society - a goal China aims to achieve in 2020.
The year 2019 was full of risks and challenges at home and abroad, but the main indicators showed steady and sound development for the nation's trade, Zhong said.
Consumer retail sales totaled 37.3 trillion yuan ($5.3 trillion) in the first 11 months, a rise of 8 percent year-on-year, the ministry announced.
Consumption, which in the first three quarters contributed more than 60 percent to economic growth, is expected to remain the "primary driver" of such growth, said Zhong at the meeting.
From January to November, foreign trade amounted to 28.5 trillion yuan, up 2.4 percent year-on-year, the ministry reported.
According to a guideline published in November, China plans to create an evaluation system for high-quality trade growth, including indicators, policies, statistics and performance by 2022, aimed at significantly improving trade structure and output.
The guideline was launched to encourage competitive and consistent trade momentum with a key focus on the establishment of secure and better-structured trade platforms.
Wei Jianguo, China Center for International Economic Exchanges vice President explained that "In the future, it is expected that the country will take further steps to boost existing trade practices, promote new business models, build a more efficient financial environment and continually strengthen reforms."
He said the foreign investment law is going to bring about several changes for the country. For example, foreign investment is expected to flow in the coming year, not only to big-ticket infrastructure projects but also to small and medium-sized ventures, Wei said.
It is anticipated that more than 1,000 medium-sized projects worth more than $1 billion will attract foreign capital in the next year, Wei said.
This year, foreign direct investments have risen steadily. According to the ministry, FDI has exceeded 85 billion yuan in the first 11 months of this year, up 6 percent year-on-year. Overall, China's economic output was up for the first time in eight months in December, based on recent data compiled by Bloomberg.
