VI. Foreign Economic Relations

The total value of imports and exports in 2008 reached US$2,561.6 billion, up 17.8 percent over the previous year. Of this total, the value of exports was US$1,428.5 billion, up 17.2 percent, and the value of imports was US$1,133.1 billion, up 18.5 percent. China had a trade surplus (exports minus imports) of US$295.5 billion, an increase of US$32.8 billion over the previous year.

The year 2008 witnessed the establishment of 27,514 enterprises with foreign direct investment in non-financial sectors, down by 27.3 percent; and the foreign capital actually utilized was US$92.4 billion, up by 23.6 percent. Of the total foreign direct investment actually utilized, the share of investment in manufacturing was 54.0 percent over the pervious year, the real estate 20.1 percent, leasing and business service 5.5 percent, wholesales and retail trade 4.8 percent and transportation, storage and post service 3.1 percent.

In 2008, the overseas direct investment (non-financial sectors) by Chinese investors was US$40.7 billion, up by 63.6 percent over the previous year.

In 2008, the accomplished business revenue through contracted overseas engineering projects was US$56.6 billion, up by 39.4 percent, and the business revenue through overseas labor contracts was US$8.1 billion, up by 19.1 percent over the previous year.

VII. Transportation, Post, Telecommunications and Tourism

The value added of the transportation, storage, post and telecommunication sectors reached 1,659.0 billion yuan in 2008, up 7.6 percent over the previous year.

The volume of freight handled by ports above the designated size throughout the year totaled 5.87 billion tons, up 11.5 percent over the previous year, of which freight for foreign trade was 1.92 billion tons, up 7.0 percent. Container shipping handled 128.35 million standard containers, up by 12.2 percent.

The total number of motor vehicles for civilian use reached 64.67 million (including 14.92 million tri-wheel motor vehicles and low-speed trucks) by the end of 2008, up 13.5 percent, of which private-owned vehicles numbered 41.73 million, up 18.1 percent. The total number of cars for civilian use stood at 24.38 million, up by 24.5 percent, of which private-owned cars numbered 19.47 million, up by 28.0 percent.

The turnover of post and telecommunication services totaled 2,384.1 billion yuan, up 20.7 percent over the previous year. Of this total, post services accounted for 140.2 billion yuan, up 15.5 percent, and telecommunication services 2,244.0 billion yuan, up 21.0 percent. By the end of 2008, with a decrease of 1.56 million lines of office switchboards, the total capacity reached 510 million lines. The year also saw 340.81 million fixed telephone subscribers. This included 232.00 million urban subscribers and 108.81 million rural subscribers. Mobile phone users numbered 641.23 million by the end of 2008, with 93.92 million new subscribers in the year. In total, the number of fixed and mobile phone users reached 982.04 million, an increase of 69.09 million as compared with that at the end of 2007. Phone coverage is 74.3 sets per 100 persons. The number of Internet users was 300 million and wide-band users reached 270 million.

In 2008, the number of inbound visitors to China totaled 130.03 million, a year-on-year decline of 1.4 percent. Of this total, 24.33 million were foreigners, down 6.8 percent; and 105.70 million were Chinese compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, down 0.1 percent. Of all the inbound tourists, overnight visitors counted 53.05 million, down 3.1 percent. Foreign exchange earnings from international tourism topped US$40.8 billion, down 2.6 percent. The number of China’s outbound visitors totaled 45.84 million, up 11.9 percent. Of this total, 40.13 million were on private visits, a year-on-year rise of 14.9 percent, or 87.5 percent of all outgoing visitors. The year 2008 saw 1.71 billion domestic tourists, up 6.3 percent. The revenue from domestic tourism totaled 874.9 billion yuan, up 12.6 percent.