"FDI will grow on a gradual basis," Chen said.

As China's efforts to promote domestic consumption have taken off, the growth of imports will outperform that of exports next year, he said.

Besides slackened demand, trade barriers and protectionism will also challenge Chinese exporters, analysts said.

Many exporters, such as Sinologry, which targets European and North American markets, have struggled as the impact of the financial crisis materialized last year.

Over time, however, the improving global economy has not brought much comfort to them, despite a gradual pick up in overseas demand.

This year, more than 100 trade remedy cases concerning more than US$10 billion were initiated against China.

The latest case was the EU on Tuesday deciding to prolong an anti-dumping tariff on shoe imports from China for 15 months, disregarding strong opposition from several European nations.

Analysts said that as China's trade partners, such as the US, become more export-driven to revive their economies, China will continue to be a major target of trade protectionist measures worldwide.

"Most of those cases violated WTO rules," said Zhou Shijian, a senior WTO expert.

More measures against high value-added categories outside manufacturing, such as a carbon tariff, will show up next year, Chen said.

Chen vowed China will step up efforts to fight trade protectionism.

(China Daily December 25, 2009)