China's exports declined 22 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of this year. But its global market share is rising. The proportion of Chinese products among the total imports to the US and Japan has grown by 2.3 and 5.6 percentage points respectively from January to April, with an increase of 1.9 percentage points in the EU market.
To achieve the GDP growth, Fan suggested policymakers should maintain the pace of government-led investment.
"The growth rate at 8 percent can be guaranteed as long as growth of government-led investment does not turn negative," he said.
However, some experts expressed worries about the impact of the stimulus package on the economy.
The stimulus index weakened significantly in the second quarter this year, contributing only 0.3 percent to the economic growth and will continue to shrink in July, according to Stephen Green, an economist with Standard Chartered.
About 80 percent of the money financed in infrastructure projects in the first half-year came from bank loans, instead of the finance budget, he said.
The Ministry of Finance said it would invest 200 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, after giving 80 billion yuan to local governments in the third quarter.
People also raised questions about the efficiency of the government investment.
The government should learn lessons from the use of government funding after the Asian financial crisis in 1998, said Jia Kang, director of the Institute of Research at the Ministry of Finance.
He urged the government to send inspection teams to supervise and monitor the ongoing or planned projects invested in by the government or in partnership with private investment.
"It is a top priority to ensure the quality of investment projects at every stage through timely checks and guidance," he said.
(China Daily August 28, 2009)
