As they push deeper into China, the world’s largest car market, automakers are using a major trade fair to tout eco-friendly vehicles of the future and luxury cars that they say will power sales.
China’s economy during the past 30 years has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.
One demographic consequence of the “one child” policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world.
The country’s per capita income was at $6,567 (IMF, 98th) in 2009.
The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978.
Agricultural output has been vulnerable to the effects of weather, while industry has been more directly influenced by the government.
The technological level and quality standards of its industry as a whole are still fairly low, notwithstanding a marked change since 2000, spurred in part by foreign investment.
China’s ongoing economic transformation has had a profound impact not only on China but on the world.
The ministry made the announcements during a press conference held in Xiamen on the upcoming United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum and the 14th China International Fair for Investment and Trade.
In this period the average annual growth rate stood at more than 50 percent.
China is expected to have 200 million cars on the road by 2020, increasing pressure on energy security and the environment, government officials said yesterday.
In large part as a result of economic liberalization policies, the GDP quadrupled between 1978 and 1998, and foreign investment soared during the 1990s.
Even with these improvements, agriculture accounts for only 20% of the nation’s gross national product.
Except for the oasis farming in Xinjiang and Qinghai, some irrigated areas in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, and sheltered valleys in Tibet, agricultural production is restricted to the east.
Fish and pork supply most of the animal protein in the Chinese diet.
Growing domestic demand beginning in the mid-1990s, however, has forced the nation to import increasing quantities of petroleum.
There are large deposits of uranium in the northwest, especially in Xinjiang; there are also mines in Jiangxi and Guangdong provs.
Hydroelectric projects exist in provinces served by major rivers where near-surface coal is not abundant.
There are railroads to North Korea, Russia, Mongolia, and Vietnam, and road connections to Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Myanmar.
Read this article:
Scenes from the Shanghai Auto Show
