China's rapid economic growth, brought about by the adoption of market mechanisms, is quite likely to continue in the coming years, said a report offered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) during an ongoing anti-corruption conference in Beijing.

In the past more than two decades, China's economic growth has averaged 9.5 percent, a rapid pace which is likely to be sustained for some time, according to the Economic Survey of China in 2005.

"Such an increase in output represents one of the most sustained and rapid economic transformations seen in the world economy in the past 50 years," it said.

China started its reform efforts with the agricultural sector about 25 years ago

It has lately involved sectors including industry and service, industries that have received enormous vigor and vitality from the transformation.

Many Chinese industries have become completely integrated into the world supply chain and, if current trends persist, China could become the largest exporter in the world by the beginning of the next decade, said the report.

Rapid economic growth has delivered higher incomes and a substantial reduction in those living in absolute poverty, said OECD.

The OECD said China's economy's size has already exceeded that of a number of major European economies when measured in market prices, predicting that there may only be three OECD countries able to surpass China in the coming five years.

However, the organization said, the average income of the Chinese people is still below that in some other middle-income countries.

"Large parts of China have reached the income levels seen in some developed East Asian countries one generation ago and are proceeding along a rapid catch-up path," it said.

OECD analyzed that it was the great changes in China's economic policies that have made such an extraordinary economic performance possible.

It also highly praised the big changes introduced into China's constitution in 2004, which stresses that both state and private assets in China should be protected equally.

In China, the scope of private ownership has grown into a substantial part of the country's economy and produced more than half of the country's gross domestic product and millions of jobs.

In 2005, China is expected to allow private ownership enter a fresh number of economic sectors such as infrastructure, public utilities and financial services, which will further fuel the private sector to become more powerful, it said.

Source: Xinhua