Daily Times

China’s top economic planner approved 70 fixed-asset investment (FAI) projects in the first five months of the year, with combined investment totaling 667.2 billion yuan (about 93.59 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed.

The projects were mainly in the high-tech, energy and transportation industries, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

In May alone, 14 FAI projects worth 288.8 billion yuan were approved, the data revealed.

Fixed-asset investment, one of the drivers of China’s economy, went up 4 percent in the January to May period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The value of China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports exceeded 2 trillion yuan (about 280.55 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time in 2022, reaching 2.1 trillion yuan and marking an increase of 7.1 percent compared with 2021, according to a report released Saturday.

The report was released by China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) at a forum during the 2023 China (Langfang) International Economic and Trade Fair in Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei Province.

Among the export destinations in China’s cross-border e-commerce in 2022, the United States accounted for 34.3 percent of the market and the United Kingdom accounted for 6.5 percent. Major export items included clothing, shoes, bags and electronic products.

Japanese products accounted for 21.7 percent of China’s total cross-border e-commerce imports in 2022, while U.S. products accounted for 17.9 percent.

Consumer goods constituted 92.8 percent of the exports and 98.3 percent of the imports, according to the report.

Since the beginning of this year, China’s cross-border e-commerce has continued to maintain its growth momentum, said Lyu Daliang, an official with the GAC.

“A GAC survey has shown that more than 70 percent of enterprises expect stable or growing cross-border e-commerce in 2023,” said Lyu.