The New Nation - Internet Edition

Xinhua, Nanning

Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan on Sunday hailed the achievements China has made since 1978 when the country launched the reform and opening up drive, saying that China has witnessed extensive and fundamental changes in its economic and social fields.

While delivering a keynote speech at the opening of the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit held in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Zeng cited that China's annual GDP growth averaged 9.7 percent from 1978 to 2006.

He noted, the country's total trade volume increased from 20.6 billion US dollars to 1.76 trillion US dollars during the same period.

Zeng said that since the beginning of this year, China's economy has maintained a steady and rapid development.

especially in the sectors of agriculture, industry, investment, consumption and foreign trade, adding, "Enterprises yielded growing profits, governments reported rises in financial revenues, and urban and rural people got a greater income, and all grew by a large margin."

He stressed that product quality, especially food safety, has greatly improved.

However, the vice premier said, "we should keep a sober mind and realize that problems have remained in our economy, which are unreasonably faster economic growth, rising pressure on resources and the environment, excessive capital liquidity, fast food price hikes and imperfect economic system."