Since its winning of the Olympic bids for 2008, World Expo 2010 and accession to the WTO, companies, both local and foreign are itching their way into Chinese markets, either looking for business opportunities or to expand their business operation in China.

China has been the fastest-growing nation for the past quarter of a century with an average annual GDP growth rate in excess of 10%. Per capita income has grown at an average annual rate of more than 8% over the last three decades. China saw its export and import volume in service trade (excluding government service) stood at US$ 250.91 billion in 2007,an increase of over 30% from the previous year as according to its the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) report in June 2008.

China as the second largest economy in the world after the US, with a GDP of over US$7 trillion (2007) when measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis. In November 2007, it became the third largest in the world after the US and Japan with a nominal GDP of US$3.42 trillion in 2007 when measured in foreign exchange-rate terms.

China is the world's largest producer of rice and is among the principal sources of corn (maize), wheat, soybeans, peanuts (groundnuts), cotton and tobacco. China is one of the world's largest producers of several industrial and mineral products, including cotton cloth,cotton yarn, antimony,tungsten,crude oil, coal and other products.

China's mineral resources are probably among the richest in the world but are only partially developed. China has acquired some highly sophisticated production facilities through trade and also has built several advanced engineering plants capable of manufacturing an increasing range of sophisticated defense and power technologies.

In 2007, the European Union was still China's largest trading partner, and Japan its third largest. China's Trade with the European Union rose 27% year-on-year to US$356.15 billion while Japan reached over US$236.02 billion, up 13.9 percent. Trade between Russia and China increased 44%, year-on-year, in 2007 to US$48.2 billion.Further readings on SearchAnythingEurope.com and SearchAnythingRussia.com

China-US Trade, which totaled only US$5 billion in 1980, rose to $387 billion in 2007. China overtook Japan to become the third largest U.S. export market, and overtook Canada to become the largest source of U.S. imports.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAmerica.com.com

Trade volume between China and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) hit US$202.6 billion in 2007, up 25.9 percent year-on-year, as announced by the China-ASEAN Business Council.Further news can be found on SearchAnythingAsia.com.com

Since its adoption of the "Four Modernizations" - agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defence, just a generation ago, China's share of world economic output has grown from 3.4 per cent to almost 12 per cent by 2000. China's booming economy has been hailed as a true economic miracle by many.

China provides huge investment opportunity for many producers of commodities and companies or investors who wish to find a way to place their money into a rich market. On average, China's economy grows by 10% annually. There continues to be encouraging demand for investment and business growth in China for the next decade.

Copyright (c) 2008 Paul Hata