To do business with China has become not only the choice that the CEOs of international companies make, but also the decision that leaders of Western countries have to make.

Despite the different attitudes toward China, the international community does not deny that China plays an increasingly important role in global trade and investment.

China, from the late 1970s, has chosen to integrate with the world economy and has got on the track of globalization.

Backed by the combination of international capital and rich human resources, the coastal areas in east China have become a major workshop for manufacturing over the last 25 years. From personal computers to underwear, products made in China have entered more and more families all over the world.

In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organization, making an important step into the world trade system. By deepening its reforms, China has reduced the barriers to investors and become a most attractive destination for investors. For the first time in history, China overtook the United States and attracted the largest amount of international capital in 2002, when it received over 50 billion US dollars of foreign investment.The figure rose to 535 billion US dollars in 2003.

Along with the increase in investment, overseas businesses haveinvested in a wider scope ranging from processing to research, management and services.

In fact China has become one of the world's major buyers of manufacturing equipment, parts and raw materials, and a fast growing large market.

Statistics show that China's export and import increased 35 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in 2003, which made the country the third largest importer in the world, next to the United States and Germany.

China now accounts for 17 percent of the total trade volume in Asia, and nearly five percent of the global trade volume.

Its neighboring countries, which were once worried about the fast development of the Chinese economy, have benefited. They are now much more active in boosting bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation with China.

While trade between China and the other major Asian economies is developing fast, the two-way trade between China and India jumped to seven billion US dollars in 2003 from a mere 1.3 billionUS dollars in 1997. Trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also hit a new high of 77 billion US dollars last year, with ASEAN having a surplus of 16.1 billion US dollars.

Breakthroughs have also been made in the process of a free trade area (FTA) arrangement between China and its neighbors. In the first step, China and the ASEAN signed an agreement of comprehensive economic cooperative framework in November 2002, mapping out a series of measures to push regional economic cooperation.

Discussion on FTA establishment is going on between China and New Zealand, the first country in the Western world that accepted China as a full market economy.

Former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De Leon spoke highly of China's fast development. He said China has become a very open country that is active in foreign trade and contributingto world peace and stability.

Source: Xinhua