China's foreign trade volume is expected to reach 2.5 trillion US dollars by the year 2010, making it the second largest trade country in the world, said Zhang Lichuan, director of the statistical division of the General Administration of Customs (GAC) Friday in Beijing.

If trade continues to grow at the annual rate of 7 percent after 2010, the figure will hopefully rise to 5 trillion in 2020, 10 times that of 2001, predicted Zhang at an on-going international forum on productivity development in China.

China's export already ranked third in the world by the end of 2004. In the next 15 years foreign trade is to grow in a more favorable macroeconomic environment with the positive impact of China's entry into the WTO, she said.

China will continue to attract foreign investments, and domestic enterprises will explore more opportunities for investing overseas in such areas as resource development, information transmission, and computer services, she said.

She also listed several unfavorable factors. Export growth may be constrained by the slowdown of world economy and the possible stagnation of market expansion, and export tax rebate may further add to the country's fiscal burdens, she said.

Source: Xinhua