Good morning, friends from the media. I am glad to meet you again to brief you the business performance of January-April, and answer the questions of your concern.

I. Market performance and features

The domestic consumer market remained a stable growth since the beginning of the year. In the four months, the retail sales of consumer goods reached RMB9.3 trillion, up 10.4% year on year, 0.2 percentage points slower than that of the first quarter. Among that, the retail sales of consumer goods in April was up 10.0%, 0.2 percentage points slower than that of the last month, and the decreasing margin was narrowed. In general, the consumer market was steadily operated, maintaining a reasonable range. Meanwhile, there were some highlights in the market:

1. New business types led the growth of the consumption. In January-April, the retail sales of online products was up 40.3%, 29.9 percentage points higher than that of the total retail sales of consumer goods, accounting for 9.3% of the total retail sales of consumer goods and 0.4 percentage higher than that of the first quarter. According to the monitoring of the Ministry of Commerce, in April, the sales of online shops of the 5000 major retail enterprises were up 40.4%, 4.9 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year; the sales of shopping malls were up 12.0%, 9.8, 9 and 5.5 percentage points higher than that of the special stores, department stores and supermarkets.

2. Mass Consumption heated up. The catering market continued to pick up, and the mass catering became the mainstream of the market. In April, the national catering revenue was up 11.7% year on year, 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the last month, and higher than the growth of the products retailing for 4 consecutive months. Among that, the catering revenue of the units above designated size was up 7.2%, 0.7 percentage points higher than that of the last month. The consumption for cultural entertainment, recreation and body building became the normal of mass consumption. In April, the film tickets revenue reached RMB 4.09 billion, up 42% month on month, and 1.3 times of that of last year; the sales of sports and recreation products of the 5000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was up 9.7% in April, 6.9 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year.

3. Consumption for upgrading products developed rapidly. With the popularization of intelligent products and the expansion of demands for upgrading, among the units above designated size, the sales of household appliances was up 12.6% in April, 5.1 percentage points higher than that of the same period of last year; sales of communication equipments was up 37.2%, maintaining a growth above 30% for 7 consecutive months. In April, sales of 4G mobile phones of the 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce was up 1.3 times. Sales of SUV and MPV were up 48.5% and 22.2% year on year respectively, 3.7% higher than the market growth of passenger vehicles.

4. Hot spots of green consumption sprung up continuously. As the concept of energy conservation and environment protection had been received by the public, the green and energy conservation products were welcomed by the market. Among the 5,000 major retail enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, the sales of first-class energy conservation refrigerators in January-April increased 16.9%, 13.2 percentage points higher than that of the whole refrigerator products. The statistics of China Automotive Industry Association showed that the sales of new energy automobiles in the first quarter maintained a rapid growth, up 2.8 times year on year.

5. Consumer prices steadily picked up. In January-April, CPI was up 1.3% year on year. Among that, CPI was up 1.5% in April, 0.1 percentage points higher than that of last month. In 36 large and medium-sized cities monitored by the Ministry of Commerce, the prices of agricultural products were up 1.2% year on year in April, ending the 7-month negative growth. Among that, the prices of fruit, eggs and chicken were up 5.6%, 4.3% and 4.1% respectively, while that of mutton and soybean oil down 10.1% and 2.5% respectively year on year.

II. Foreign Trade

According to the Customs statistics, China’s total import and export in April 2015 reached RMB 1.96 trillion, down 10.9% year on year. Among that, the export was RMB 1.08 trillion, down 6.2%, and import RMB 0.87 trillion, down 16.1%. The trade surplus was RMB 210.2 billion, up 85.2%. In terms of the U.S. dollar, the total import and export reached US$ 318.5 billion, down 11.1%, among which, the export was US$ 176.3 billion, down 6.4%, and the import US$ 142.2 billion, down 16.2%. The trade surplus was US$ 34.1 billion, up 82.9%. The main characteristics of the foreign trade in April were as follows:

1. Both import and export witnessed negative growth, and the export decrease slowed down. Affected by the weak domestic and foreign demands, low prices of major international commodities and the passive revaluation of the RMB appreciation, China’s import and export in April still witnessed a negative growth, but 2.6 percentage points slower than last month. Among them, the export was 8.4 percentage points slower, but the decrease of import was higher.

2. Export to the U.S. and part of Asia-Pacific regions maintained the growth, and import from BRICS declined largely. China’s export to the U.S. was up 3.4%, and export to Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and Vietnam increased 5.2%, 3.2%, 3% and 1.9% respectively. Affected by the factors like the passive revaluation of the RMB appreciation, China’s export to Japan and the EU were down 12.9% and 10/1% respectively. Import from South Africa, Brazil, Russia and India decreased 37.2%, 25.3%, 22.3% and 21.4% respectively, dragging the growth of import down by 2.1 percentage points.

3. The decrease of the general trade slowed down obviously, and the processing trade dragged the export down most. Import and export of the general trade reached RMB 1,076.0 billion, down 10.9%, 4.5 percentage points slower than that of last month. Among that, the export was down 4.2%, 12.5 percentage points slower. Import and export of the processing trade reached RMB 619.1 billion, down 9.7%, among which, the export was down 9%, dragging the growth of the whole export down 3.3 percentage points. Import and export of other trade reached RMB 262.9 billion, down 13.5%.

4. The decrease of the export of mechanical and electrical products was slower than that of the labor intensive products, the import prices still falling. The export of mechanical and electrical products was RMB 634.1 billion, down 2.6%, accounting for 58.5% of the total export, and 2.1 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year. Among that, export of ships and mobile phones increased 41.7% and 24.2% respectively. Export of seven kinds of labor intensive products including textile and garment reached RMB 208.1 billion, down 11.8%. The average price of import products was down 12.8%, 2.3 percentage points higher than that of last month, maintaining the negative growth for 11 consecutive months. Among them, import prices of crude oil, iron ore, refined oil, liquefied petroleum gas, soybean and copper ore were down 48.3%, 46%, 36.5%, 29.2%, 26% and 19.7% respectively. The import volume of the above products saw ups and downs. The import of liquefied petroleum gas, crude oil and copper ore increased 21.2%, 8.7% and 4.8% respectively, with the import of soybean, refined oil and iron ore down 18.4%, 3.8% and 3.7% respectively.

5. The import and export of Central China were better than that the whole country, and the decrease of Eastern China’s import and export slowed down. The import and export of Central China reached RMB 143 billion, down 9.2%, with 1.6 and 4.2 percentage points slower than that of Eastern and Western China. The import and export of Eastern China was RMB 168.17 billion, down 10.8%, with 3.1 percentage points slower than that of last month. The import and export of Western China was RMB 133.3 billion, down 13.4%.

6. The export of the private enterprises decreased the least, and the state-owned enterprises were still depressed. The import and export of private enterprises was RMB 680.8 billion, down 12.3%, with export down 5.8%, and 0.4 percentage points slower than that of the total export. The import and export of the state-owned enterprises was RMB 337.1 billion, down 17.8%, dropping a figure of two digital for two consecutive months. The import and export of foreign-invested enterprises was RMB 940.1 billion, down 7.2%.

III. Foreign Investment in China

In January-April of 2015, a total of 7,790 newly-established foreign-invested enterprises were approved, up 17.0% year on year; The actually utilized FDI registered RMB 273.61 billion (equivalent to US$44.49 billion), up 11.1% year on year (excluding the data of banking, securities and insurance) . In April, 1,929 newly-established foreign-funded enterprises were approved, up 2.9% year on year; the utilized FDI am
ounted to RMB 59.04 billion (equivalent to US$9.61 billion), up 10.5% year on year. The characteristics of foreign investment in China in January-April are as follows:

1. The actually utilized FDI in service sector sustained a growth. In January-April, the utilized FDI in service sector stood at US$28.14 billion, up 24.8% year on year, taking up 63.2% among the national total, of which the financial service sector, distribution service sector and comprehensive technology service sector stood out with US$8.46 billion, US$2.35 billion and US$1.01 billion respectively. The actually utilized FDI in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery registered US$580 million, up 9.7% year on year, taking up 1.3% of the national total. Utilized FDI in manufacturing reached US$13.72 billion, down 5.4% year on year, taking up 30.8% of the national total, of which communication equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, and chemical materials and chemical products manufacturing stood out with US$2.68 billion, US$1.35 billion and US$1.23 billion respectively.

2.Investment from major countries and regions maintained a steady growth. In January-April, the actual input of FDI from the top 10 countries and regions (Hong Kong, the ROK, Taiwan Province, Singapore, Japan, the U.S., Germany, the UK, France and Macao) totaled US$42.39 billion, taking up 95.3% of the national actually utilized FDI, up 12% year on year. Among others, investment from the UK, France and Macao registered US$530 million, US$400 million and US$340 million respectively, up 61.0%, 29.8% and 72.8% respectively; investment from Japan and the U.S. reached US$1.44 billion and US$880 million, down 7.8% and 28.4% year on year; investment from 28 EU countries registered US$2.52 billion, up 22.2% year on year and investment from ASEAN countries came to US$1.73 billion, down 23.2% year on year.

3. Actually utilized FDI in eastern China maintained a rapid growth. In January-April of 2015, the actually utilized FDI in eastern China registered US$38.34 billion, up 17.0% year on year; that in central China and western China registered US$3.35 billion and US$2.8 billion, down 22% and 12.4% year on year respectively.

IV. China’s Investment and Economic Cooperation Overseas

Direct investment Overseas. In January-April, Chinese investors made direct investment in 2,884 enterprises in 146 countries and regions around the world, with a combined investment of RMB214.37 billion (equivalent to US$34.97 billion), up 36.1% year on year. Among others, equity and other investment amounted to RMB180.04 billion (equivalent to US$29.37 billion), taking up 84% of the total, and reinvestment of earnings reached RMB 34.33 billion (equivalent to US$5.6 billion), accounting for 16%. As of the end of April, China’s total non-financial direct investment overseas amounted to RMB 4.17637 trillion (equivalent to US$681.3 billion).

In January-April, there were 23 countries and regions each with a direct investment above US$100 million, mainly from China’s Hong Kong, Netherlands, Cayman Islands, the U.S., the British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Germany and Australia. Chinese enterprises have made a direct investment in 47 countries, with a combined value of US$3.72 billion, mainly in Singapore, Indonesia, Laos and Russia.

In January-April, the Chinese mainland’s investment in the seven major economies of Hong Kong, the ASEAN, the EU, Australia, the U.S., Russia and Japan totaled US$27.29 billion, taking up 78% of the national total foreign direct investment over the same period time. The investment in the EU, the ASEAN, China’s Hong Kong and the U.S. saw a rapid growth, up 487%, 62%, 52% and 33.5% respectively. The investment in Australia, Japan and Russia decreased by 65%,14.2% and 4.5% respectively.

Contracted projects overseas. In January-April, the turnover of China’s contracted projects overseas amounted to RMB 256.54 billion (equivalent to US$41.85 billion), up 15% year on year. The value of newly-signed contracts was RMB347.94 billion (equivalent to US$56.76 billion), up 29.6% year on year. The turnover completed in April reached US$10.09 billion, up 7.6% year on year. The value of newly-signed contracts in April totaled US$11.17 billion, with an increase of 29.4% year on year.

In January-April, there were a total of 209 projects (an increase of 32 over the same period of last year) each with a newly-signed contract value of above US$50 million, adding up to US$45.55 billion, taking up 80.3% of the total newly-signed contracts. There were a total of 132 projects each with a newly-signed contract value of US$100 million, an increase of 32 year on year. In April, there were 48 projects each with a newly-signed contract value of above US$50 million (an increase of 13 over the same period of last year).

In January-April, the top three contracted projects in terms of the newly-signed contract value were Congo-kinshasa’s electric transmission and distribution circuit project (US$1.62 billion) undertaken by Shanghai Electric Power T&D Group, the Kazakhstan PKOP oil refinery second phrase project (US$1.25 billion) undertaken by China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp., and the Angola SIYOI recycled power plant construction and installation project (with a contract value of US$990 million) undertaken by China Machinery Engineering Corporation.

Till the end of April, the combined contract value of overseas contracted projects registered US$1418.34 billion with a combined turnover of US$977.01 billion.

Labor Service Cooperation Overseas. In January-April, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas reached 167,000, an increase of 16,000 over the same period of last year, going up 10.6% year on year. Labor service personnel dispatched for contracted projects were 84,000 and for labor service cooperation were 83,000. In April, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas amounted to 47,000, an increase of 8,000 over the same period of last year. At the end of April, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas amounted to 995,000, an increase of 93,000 over the same period of last year.

By the end of April, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas totaled 7,650,000.

Overseas trade and economic cooperative zones. In January-April, the newly-added investment of enterprises in 14 trade and economic cooperative zones registered US$52.87 million. Among others, US$26.29 million was invested in the infrastructure construction and US$1.6781 trillion was the newly-added investment of enterprises in cooperative zones with a combined output value of US$1.11 billion. The tax turned over to the host government was US$49.47 million.

By the end of April, enterprises in the 14 cooperative zones have realized a total investment value of US$1.68 billion, of which US$1.31 billion was invested in infrastructure construction. Enterprises in the zones added up to 412, with an accumulative investment value of US$4.38 billion and a total output value of US$18.75 billion. US$ 770 million tax was handed over to the host government and 46,000 jobs were created for local people with over 40,000 employees being hired from local regions and the third party. The 9 enterprises within the zone that have passed the confirmation evaluation accumulatively completed an investment of US$1.37 billion, of which US$1.08 billion was used in infrastructure construction. A total of 310 enterprises within the zones realized a combined investment value of US$3.79 billion with a total output value of US$18.17 billion. US$730 million tax was handed over to the host government and 36,000 jobs were created for local people with 32,000 employees hired from local regions and the third party.

V. The Service Outsourcing Situation in January-April 2015

In January-April 2015, the contract value of service outsourcing signed by Chinese enterprises was US$34.5 billion, with an increase of 2.1% year on year and the executed contract value was US$24.6 billion with an increase of 12% year on year. The contract value of offshore service outsourcing totaled US$21.73 billion, with a decrease of 5.3% and the executed contract value was US$16.35 billion, with an increase of 10.1%. The contract value of onshore service outsourcing was US$12.27 billion, with an increase of 17.8% and the executed contract value was US$8.25 billion, with an increase of 16.1%.

At present, the overall recovery of the international economic situation is relatively slow, the main contract awarding markets such as the United States, the EU and Japan are fairly weak, the performance of the traditional contract awarding enterprises is descending and the business foreign contract awarding is decreasing, which are the main factors of the decreasing of contract value of offshore service outsourcing in China year on year. At the same time, the industrial structure of service outsourcing shows some new changes. In January-April, the executed contract value of offshore information technology outsourcing (ITO), knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) reached US$8.15 billion, US$5.82 billion and US$2.38 billion respectively, with an increase of 1%, 26.7% and 10.4% year on year respectively, accounting for 49.9%, 35.6% and 14.5% respectively. The ITO remained a relatively rapid growth, accounting for over 35% for the first time.

VI. The Service Trade Import and Export Situation in the First Quarter

Chinese service trade import and export remained a double-digit growth in the first quarter. The total import-export volume of service trade reached US$149.54 billion, with an increase of 10.6% year on year (the import and export of goods at the same time decreased 6.3% year on year). The service trade export was US$54.94 billion with an increase of 10.5% year on year and the import was US$94.6 billion with an increase of 10.6%. The deficit of service trade totaled US$39.66 billion.

Tourism is the biggest service trade category. The import and export volume of tourism reached US$49.31 billion, accounting for 33% of the total service volume of import and export of China, with an increase of 26.8%. The import and export of construction service increased rapidly, with a total value of US$6.5 billion and an increase of 78.4% year on year. The export of high value-added telecommunication, computer and information service and the insurance and pension was relatively strong, with an increase of 17.4% and 25% year on year. The professional management and the consultation service were the service categories with relatively bigger surplus in Chinese service trade, realizing a trade deficit of US$4 billion. The trade surplus of telecommunication, computer and information service reached US$2.97 billion and the traditional tourism and transportation service accounted for a larger proportion in the service trade surplus.

The service trade in the “Yangtze River Economic Belt” region enjoyed a favorable growth momentum. In the first quarter of 2015, the total volume of service import and export in the “Yangtze River Economic Belt” region (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou) was US$61.4 billion, accounting for 41.1% of the nationwide amounts, with an increase of 13.6% compared with the same period last year, exceeding 3 percentage points of the national average growing rate and driving 5 percentage points of the national service import and export growth. The service export in the above regions totaled US$23.1 billion, up 9% and the import reached US$38.3 billion, up 16.5%. Shanghai continued to lead the country with the total volume of US$28.9 billion and an increase of 15.1%, ranking the first in China. Jiangsu reached US$12.3 billion and Zhejiang was US$8.1 billion, with an increase of 8.2% and 10%.

VII. The Relevant Situation of China Report on E-commerce (2014)

China Report on E-commerce (2014), the eighth issue since 2003, is a comprehensive research report compiled by the Ministry of Commerce to reflect the development situation of Chinese e-commerce. The Report is composed of a general report and eight special reports. The general report sums up the progress of Chinese e-commerce in 2014 and elaborates the development features and trends of Chinese e-commerce, and the special reports reflect the development situation such as the legal environment of e-commerce policies and the service industry of e-commerce.

The Report comprehensively analyzes the main features of the development of Chinese e-commerce. Firstly, e-commerce becomes an important growth point of national economy. In 2014, the growth of the electronic commerce trade volume (28.64%) was 3.86 times that of the growth of the gross domestic product (7.4%) and the growth of the annual e-retailing sales was 37.7 percentage points faster than the total retail sales of consumer goods. In 2014, the revenue of the internet industry closely related with the e-commerce increased 50% and the scale of the national information consumption reached 2.8 trillion RMB, with an increase of 18% year on year. The information consumption drove the development of the relevant industries with a value of 1.2 trillion RMB, contributing about 0.8 percentage points to GDP. Secondly, the mobile electronic commerce had an explosive growth. In 2014, the transaction scale of the mobile purchasing market in China reached 895.685 billion RMB, with an annual growth rate of 234.3% and the number of users of Wechat reached 500 million with an increase of 41% year on year. Thirdly, the e-commerce involving in agriculture enjoyed a rapid development. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance jointly launched the project of “comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce in the rural areas” and carried out e-commerce application demonstration projects in 56 counties in 8 provinces. The Ministry of Commerce built and launched the public service platform of business information of national agricultural products, contributed to sell more than 23 million tons of agricultural and sideline products accumulatively with a trading volume of more than 87 billion RMB. Fourthly, Chinese e-commerce has become remarkably more influential internationally. In 2014, two large-scale e-commerce enterprises landed the capital market of the United States successively and won an enthusiastic response from the international capital market.

The Report elaborates the future development trend of Chinese e-commerce, believing that the traditional enterprises will continue to accelerate the steps of entering the e-commerce field , the mobile e-commerce will continue to remain a rapid growth and the trading platform of bulk commodity will become a hotspot of the development of e-commerce.

VIII. The Relevant Situation of China Import Expo, Kunshan 2015

China Import Expo, Kunshan 2015, approved by the State Council and jointly hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and People’s Government of Jiangsu will be held in Kunshan, Suzhou, Jiangsu on May 20-23, 2015. This trade fair has been successfully held three times since 2012.

This Import Expo is themed by “opening cooperation and transformation and upgrading”, focusing on demonstrating and introducing the brand products and new technologies in such fields as the equipment manufacturing, environmental technologies, and living consumption, all that were imported under the encouragement from the state and Jiangsu province, with an exhibition and negotiation scale of 80,000 square meters. At present, more than 680 well-known enterprises from more than 40 countries and regions have confirmed to participate in the Expo, among which 12 exhibition groups are from the countries along the line of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. The Import Expo will continue to create the professional exhibition areas of industry and consumer goods and the exhibition layout is subdivided into 6 exhibition themes such as metal processing, automation, environmental protection, household items, food and wine and consumer electronics. During the Expo, the 4th World Business Leaders Conference, the Summit Forum for the Cross-border E-commerce and Regional Transition and series of special supporting activities will be held.

Everyone knows that the import in January-April in China decreased drastically, but we always attach great important to expanding and promoting the import. Last year, the State Council specially issued the documents on actively expanding the import and the Conference in Kunshan is exclusively held for it. We hope that you can pay close attention to it.

That’s all about the briefing. Now, you are welcome to ask any questions.

CCTV 9: Premier Li Keqiang will visit four Latin American countries on 18-26 May. We believe that his trip will help bring more Chinese businesses to Latin America. Could the Spokesperson brief us on the latest status of Chinese-funded enterprises in Latin America, and China's trade and economic relations with Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile, as well as efforts to promote trade facilitation. Thank you.

Shen Danyang: In recent years, China's trade and economic ties with in the Latin American and Caribbean countries are getting increasingly close. According to Chinese customs statistics, China-Latin America trade reached USD 263.6 billion in 2014, up by 0.8% year on year. Two-way investment and the value of engineering project contracts between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries have also been growing continuously. In particular, Chinese investment in Latin America has been rising rapidly. By the end of 2014, the stock of Chinese direct investment in Latin America stood at USD 98.9 billion, while the cumulative actualized revenue of engineering projects contracted by Chinese enterprises in Latin America reached USD 67.6 billion.

The rapid development of China's investment cooperation with the Latin American region is evidenced in the following three aspects: First, the Latin American region has become an important destination for China's outward direct investment. In 2014, Chinese direct investment in the Latin American region amounted to USD 12.85 billion, accounting for 12.5% of China's total outward direct investment. Second, the number of investment and M&A projects by Chinese enterprises in Latin America has been increasing year by year. For instance, in 2014, a consortium formed by Minmetals Resources, Guoxin International and CITIC Metal acquired the Las Bambas project in Peru for USD 5.85 billion in actual transaction value. PetroChina/CNPC acquired the Peru unit of Petrobras for USD 2.64 billion. Third, China’s cooperation with the Latin American region covers a wide range of sectors. China’s outward direct investment mainly goes into the leasing, business services, energy and resources sectors, whereas engineering projects are mainly in the transport, housing, energy and communications sectors.

Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile are all major countries in Latin America. They are also key economic and trading partners of China in the region. In recent years, bilateral trade and economic relations between China and the four countries have been developing by leaps and bounds. For the past six consecutive years China has been the largest trading partner of Brazil. China is also the biggest trading partner of Chile and Peru, and the second largest of Colombia.

Of the four, Chile and Peru have bilateral FTAs with China. The signing and implementation of the agreements has injected enormous amount of energy into bilateral trade and boosted the exports of non-traditional products from the two countries to China. Having been implemented for ten years, the China-Chile FTA enjoys a high degree of liberalization with 97% of the tariff lines of the two sides subject to zero tariff following the completion of the tariff reduction period. With its sound implementation, the China-Peru FTA has also achieved mutual benefits and win-win outcomes.

In addition to promoting trade facilitation through FTAs, China has also had good cooperation in terms of expanding market access vis-à-vis the four countries. For instance, bilateral trade in agricultural products has been actively promoted and is developing rapidly. Presently one prominent feature of China’s trade with these four countries is that more and more mineral, agricultural, forest and fishery products are being exported to China, which has now become a major export market for these products from the four countries. These four countries are also key target markets for China as far as our strategy to diversify export markets is concerned. Thank you for your questions.

Shanghai Securities News: Recently SinoTruck has once again taken a large order for 1,550 vehicles in the African market. Some media reports suggested that this again highlighted the importance of Africa as China’s export destination. Could you brief us on the status of China’s investment and export to Africa in the first quarter? Thank you.

Shen Danyang: You may find in the statistics I just shared with you that in the first quarter China’s foreign trade performance was less than satisfactory, whereas its outward direct investment and inward foreign direct investment have fared pretty well. However, China’s trade and economic cooperation with Africa is somehow different in that highlights were precisely on the trade front. It is fair to say that during the first quarter against unfavorable external factors China-Africa trade and economic cooperation has maintained a steady and rapid development. The features of the current China-Africa trade and economic cooperation can be summarized in “two highs” and “two lows”.

The first “high” is that electromechanical products have driven the high speed growth of China’s export to Africa. According to the customs, in the first quarter China’s export to Africa grew by 21.8% to USD 25.24 billion. The growth rate was nearly 17 percentage points above the national average. In breakdown, the export of electromechanical products grew by 19%, three times the national growth rate of electromechanical exports, and has become the main driver for export growth to Africa. For instance, the delivery of 95 electric locomotives, valued at approximately USD 400 million, to South Africa took place in March. Furthermore, the ongoing construction of the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya-Mombasa railway also drove the export of USD 4.4 billion worth of Chinese-made equipment and materials to Africa.

The second “high” is the high growth rate of the value of newly-signed infrastructure contracts. In the first quarter, the value of newly-signed engineering contracts by Chinese enterprises in Africa rose by 49.4% year on year to USD 23.11 billion; while the actualized revenue rose by 23.8% year on year to USD 11.7 billion, accounting for 50.7% of the total contractual value and 36.8% of the total actualized revenue of China’s overseas engineering projects in the first quarter. Among the top ten countries in terms of the value of newly-signed engineering contracts, Africa had seven. For instance, with a contractual value of USD 1.62 billion, the Shanghai Electric’s power transmission and transformation project in the D.R. Congo was the largest overseas engineering project signed by Chinese enterprises since the beginning of the year. The contractual values of CMEC’s combined-cycle power plant in Angola and CHEC’s Abidjan Port extension project in Cote d’Ivoire were USD 990 million and USD 930 million respectively.

The first of the “two lows” refers to the relatively low growth rate of major investment projects in Africa. China’s non-financial direct investment flows into Africa reached USD 530 million in the first quarter, down by 45.9% year on year. Despite the slowdown in investment, positive progress has been made recently in a number of major investment projects in Africa. It is expected that investment growth will pick up again in the future.

The second “low” refers to the low growth momentum for China’s import from Africa due to falling commodity prices. According to customs statistics, China’s imports from Africa dropped by 45.8% year on year to USD 16.5 billion in the first quarter, the main reason being falling quantities and prices of commodities. The average prices of imported crude oil and iron ore from Africa both dropped by over 40%. These imports decreased by 5.9% and 21.8% respectively in terms of quantity and dropped both by over 50% in terms of value. As a result, they dragged down the growth rate of China’s imports from Africa by 29 percentage points.

Given the considerable downward pressure on the African economy, energy and resource producing countries have a stronger desire to speed up their industrialization process. We will make good use of this window of opportunity to continue to strengthen strategic planning and top-level design for China-Africa trade and economic cooperation. The sixth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be held this year. We hope we could take advantage of this conference to focus on the construction of the “three major networks” in Africa and industrial capacity cooperation, and speed up our effort to improve the quality and efficiency of China-Africa trade and economic cooperation and realize its transformation and upgrading. Thank you for your question.

Caijing: Document No.9 of the State Council has a special mention of the comprehensive reform on cross-border e-commerce. What will be the new supporting policies to promote cross-border e-commerce? With the adjustment to import tariffs, are there going to be any changes to how these e-commerce firms avoid taxes? Thank you.

Shen Danyang: On Document No.9 which you have mentioned, we will organize a special press session to talk to you about it in detail because this document is a comprehensive and systematic document on increasing and creating new advantages in foreign trade. With a very broad content coverage, the document is not only about trade in goods, but also trade in services, investment cooperation and cross-border e-commerce as you have referred to. As regards how to promote cross-border e-commerce, the State Council issued last year another document. Drawing on the latest development of cross-border e-commerce, we will make a systematic summary and share with you our interpretations at the special press conference. Thank you for your question.

International Business Daily: Following this year’s Two Sessions, the ministries haves been actively deploying their own Internet Plus programs. MOFCOM has drawn up the special initiative of Internet + Circulation. Could you shed some light on the considerations behind and what has been done on the ground? Thank you. (2015-05-15 11:17:01)

Shen Danyang: Internet + Circulation is a special action plan introduced by MOFCOM and due online today. As a major move to adapt to the new normal, actively echo the State Council’s deployment and requirements, improve the business climate for e-commerce and promote the in-depth integration of the Internet and the circulation industry, the plan is aimed to tap the role of e-commerce in fostering new motivation, upgrading the circulation industry, unleashing consumption potentials, invigorating the industry and creating job opportunities. At present, the action plan is being fleshed out. In brief, the government should do what it is supposed to do. Internet Plus is all the rage nowadays. By rolling out Internet + Circulation, MOFCOM intends to do what it should do, rather than overstep the role of the market. We will focus on the deep-seated issues in Internet + Circulation to continuously optimize the development environment by improving the legal framework, boosting logistics infrastructure, enhancing network service ability, strengthening statistics monitoring and IPR protection, and stepping up talent training.

More specifically, efforts will focus on solving two bottlenecks in Internet + Circulation. One is the last kilometer of e-commerce. For example, e-commerce in small and medium-sized cities and the countryside will be boosted. Yesterday, MOFCOM called a work conference on promoting rural e-commerce in Suichang, Zhejiang Province. E-commerce businesses in small and medium-sized cities and the countryside should grow aggressively while improving delivery, logistics and warehousing, among other infrastructure. In the meantime, e-commerce businesses should be encouraged to build overseas warehouses and overseas logistics system. The other is to address the last 100m bottleneck of e-commerce by encouraging community-level e-commerce, online and offline interaction and innovative services for people’s livelihoods. Thank you. (2015-05-15 11:17:39)

Bloomberg: According to some analysis, till China’s accession to the IMF’s SDR reserve currency, the RMB will maintain a steady and strong momentum. You also mentioned that the RMB’s passive appreciation against non-USD currencies has led to pressure on exports. How long do you think the export slowdown caused by the strong RMB will last? With great downward pressure, is RMB appreciation good or bad for China’s economy and exports? (2015-05-15 11:19:22)

Shen Danyang: The statistics, especially foreign trade statistics I just shared with you indicate that since this year, global trade has been sluggish. In particular, the world’s major economies and emerging markets have all seen negative growth in exports. Against such a backdrop, Chinese exports grew slightly, which was really exceptional among the major economies and trading nations. That said, China’s foreign trade and its efforts to stabilize foreign trade are faced with a grave situation and extremely heavy pressure. Why is the cause? It is down to the anemic global recovery, sluggish external demand, as well as rising domestic costs of production factors, and financing difficulties confronting businesses. You raised a good question. Frankly speaking, despite the broad depreciation of the non-USD currencies, such as the Japanese yen, the euro and the ruble, the RMB has remained stable. This has hurt the competitiveness of Chinese exports and increased currency collection risks and operation pressure for foreign trade companies.

I’ll cite a few figures. Since this year, on the whole, the middle rate of the RMB against the USD dropped before rebounding, up 0.08% in March and 0.47% in April. As of the end of March, affected by the marked depreciation of non-USD currencies, the real effective exchange rate of the RMB had risen by 4.2%. Faced with the heightening volatility of the world’s major currencies, we encourage financial institutions to develop more risk-hedging products, while advising businesses to step up currency risk management, adopt more hedging tools to expand RMB settlement, and upgrade their awareness and ability to tackle currency risks. We’d like to take this opportunity to express our hope for more monetary policy coordination among the nations so as to jointly maintain global financial stability. Thank you for your question. (2015-05-15 11:19:37)

China News Service: I have two questions. One, we know that Nepal just suffered another earthquake. Has the Chinese government updated its relief program? The other is that we know in Q1 US trade deficit was dramatically higher than expected. Some say that China’s steel dumping in the US led the latter to erect import barriers to Chinese steel. What is MOFCOM’s comment? Thank you. (2015-05-15 11:32:54)

Shen Danyang: About your first question, after the earthquake in Nepal, China was among the first to provide relief and send rescue teams to Nepal. China’s relief and rescue efforts worked well and were appreciated by all the parties. There are three reasons: rapid response, continuous relief and government-people coordination. So far, MOFCOM has taken the lead and worked with other domestic departments in delivering three rounds of emergency humanitarian relief in materials worth RMB 140 million. Round One focused on shelter, as many affected people were displaced and needed tents and blankets; Round Two addressed post-quake health and security issues by increasing the supply of water purifying equipment and first-aid kits. On May 12th, Nepal was hit by a magnitude-7.5 quake. The Chinese government offered Round Three relief to the affected region to help Nepal resettle the affected people in prevention of secondary disasters, including epidemic-proof felt-cloth, tents and family health kits. These successive relief efforts address the most urgent needs of the affected region at different stages, ensuring a continuous effect.

The Chinese construction teams working on China’s aid projects to Nepal also joined rescue operations after ensuring their own safety. They provided all the food and tents in storage to local residents and saved 8 Nepalese people within the golden 72-hour window. Apart from the emergency humanitarian assistance organized by the government, the Chinese military force also carried out a massive cross-border rescue operation. Civil rescue teams and individual volunteers arrived at the disaster-hit areas immediately after the earthquake. Chinese companies and people in Nepal also participated in rescue operations while helping themselves. These companies assisted in the repair of roads and communication facilities to the best of their capacities, and provided transport and food and shelter to Chinese tourists stranded. Together, they brought to the Nepalese people the friendship of a close neighbor and ensured the safety of their compatriots trapped by the earthquake in Nepal.

It is particularly worth mentioning that in almost 60 years since 1956, China has delivered over 110 aid projects of various kinds in Nepal, including hospitals, polytechnic schools, research centers for nature conservation foundation and traditional medicine research centers. All these buildings have withstood the strong earthquake.

For the next step, MOFCOM will step up the planning and organization of relief efforts in light of the specific needs at transitional and reconstruction periods. Our preliminary consideration is to help Nepal formulate its reconstruction plans, work on major infrastructure construction, repair some historical relics and increase funding for medical care, education and training, which are urgently needed by the local people. We plan to provide systematic training to Nepalese officials and technicians on disaster early warning and emergency rescue to enhance their comprehensive capacity in disaster response, prevention and relief.

On the other question you asked. China’s steel export grew at a fast pace of around 32.7% in the first four months of this year. The main driver behind this growth is the strong demand in the international market like the US as you just mentioned. It is also partly because of the growing competitiveness of China’s steel products, thanks to falling prices of iron ore that cuts cost for steelmakers in China. It is therefore natural and undisputable to see a drastic increase in China’s steel sales in some countries and regions. Whether in the US or other markets, we object to any measures taken against China’s steel products on the ground of its uptick in sale. We hope all trade partners will attempt to resolve concerns through dialogue and collaboration with China, resort to remedy investigation in a prudent and restrained way and jointly safeguard a sound international trade environment. Thank you for your questions.

Ta Kung Pao: The Foreign Investment Report released by Germany Trade and Investment shows that China has exceeded the US to be the largest investor in Germany in terms of the number of invested projects, registering a record high of 190 and a growth rate of 37%. How does MOFCOM comment on this and how do you look at the prospect of China’s investment in Germany?

Shen Danyang: China’s non-financial direct investment in Germany reached USD 210 million in Q1. It is not very large in absolute terms, but represents a hefty growth of 246% compared to the same period last year, which is good news to both sides. This is partly because of the number of large projects launched. But fundamentally, it is because of the strong complementarity of the Chinese and German economies. Investment cooperation helps not only Chinese companies to gain access to advanced technologies and international marketing channels, hence stronger competitiveness, but also German companies to enter into the Chinese market and take up greater market shares. This is a win-win outcome. The Chinese government will continue to encourage and support Chinese companies to investment in Germany in line with customary international rules. We also hope that Germany will ensure a fair and transparent investment environment to boost the confidence of Chinese investors.

We believe as the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Germany forges ahead, China’s investment in Germany will continue to grow, which will give new impetus to the commercial relationship and bring it to a higher level.

Caixin: In the data you just shared with us, Chinese companies made direct investment in 47 countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road in the first four months of this year. The “One Belt and One Road” initiative is drawing a lot of attention domestically and internationally. Can you tell us the main features and highlights of the investment along the Belt and the Road? What kind of projects? What types of companies are investing there, state-owned or private? What are China’s favorable policies in support of the initiative in general?

Shen Danyang: You asked a big question. We’ve partly answered your question by releasing our data and analysis on trade and investment in countries along the Belt and the Road two weeks ago. We also made a reading into data from Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and some other provinces. We will disclose more data on Q1 performance after further analysis. Thank you for your question.

Nanfang Daily: I noticed that there were more FDI inflows to the eastern region than to central and western regions from January to April, which is quite different from previous years. How do you look at this change? Thank you.

Shen Danyang: As I said, the relatively rapid inflow of foreign investment in the eastern region has multiple reasons. Apart from the major reason that services are attracting investment at a faster pace, it is also because of economic restructuring, and more proactive and effective measures to promote FDI inflow and opening up taken by the region. The liberalization moves taken by the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, and by the recently launched Tianjin, Fujian, and Guangdong Free Trade Zones, will also give a strong boost to the use of FDI. Thank you.

China Radio International: A new round of chief negotiators’ meeting of China, Japan and ROK FTA talks was held in the ROK on the 12th of this month. We know that this meeting covers trade in goods and trade in services. Can you give us more specific information? Do you have a timetable for China-Japan-Korea FTA talks? Thank you.

Shen Danyang: The chief negotiators’ meeting of the 7th round of China-Japan-ROK FTA talks was held in Seoul from May 12th to 13th. Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen led the Chinese delegation to the meeting. The three parties had an in-depth exchange of views on topics including trade in goods, trade in services and the scope of the investment treaty.

The establishment of the China-Japan-ROK FTA will give full play to industrial complementarity of the three countries, tap into and enhance the potential of trade and investment flows between the three countries and promote the integration of the regional value chain. Seven rounds of negotiations have been conducted since November 2012. No timetable for the tripartite negotiation has been set. But China stands ready to work with Japan and ROK to advance the negotiations for the early conclusion of an FTA. Thank you for your question.

Shen Danyang: This concludes the Press Release. Thank you.