BEIJING, Dec 20: China’s foreign trade is expected to surpass $620 billion for 2002, while foreign investment for the year will reach 50 billion dollars, a leading trade official said on Friday.

Gao Yan, spokeswomen of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said, “2002 was the first year that China was a member of the World Trade Organization. In this year we witnessed very rapid growth in our foreign trade and economic cooperation.”

Based on a 21 per cent growth in foreign trade in the first 11 months of the year, Gao predicted China’s trade would surpass $620 billion in 2002 compared with a $509 billion last year.

In the first 11 months China enjoyed a $28 billion trade surplus, far outstripping 2001’s $22.55 billion surplus.

With actual foreign direct investment (FDI) to China rising to $48 billion in the first 11 months of the year, up 14.5 per cent over the same period last year, Gao predicted China would break the 50 billion dollar mark for the entire year.

China attracted $46.85 billion dollars of FDI in 2001, a 14.6 per cent increase compared with the previous year.

In 2003, China would continue to seek to attract FDI, especially in the retail sales market, where 17 new foreign retailers have just been approved to operate in China, she said.—AFP