The Ministry of Agriculture is vowing to keep up the fast rise in exports and foreign direct investment to township enterprises.

Ministry officials have set themselves a goal of an annual increase in exports of 8 per cent over the next five years.

That means by the end of the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05), annual total export volume from factories in rural areas would stand at 1.3 trillion yuan (US$153.6 billion), Agriculture Vice-Minister Qi Jingfa said.

That figure stood at 867 billion yuan (US$104.8 billion) in 2000, up 10 per cent from 1999.

The ministry also plans to incubate at least 1,000 large-scale township enterprises and expects export volume from each of more than 80 million yuan (US$9.7 million).

Qi said the development of township enterprises is vital to agricultural development, increasing farmers income and maintaining the stability in the country's vast rural areas.

To this end, the ministry held a national conference on promoting the export-oriented economy of township enterprises. It ends today.

At yesterday's session of the conference, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Zhou Keren pledged support. Zhou hopes village-run firms will help boost the country's foreign trade.

The Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000) witnessed the rapid development in township enterprises.

In 2000, township enterprises' direct export volume - or exports that don't rely on any intermediary channels for trade - hit 695 billion yuan (US$84 billion). That's one-third of the country's total.

Also in 2000, a total of 25,000 joint-venture township enterprises were set up with about US$30.7 billion overseas investment.

Chinese township enterprises also have established more than 1,700 businesses outside China, investing 16 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion).

The fast development of township enterprises, which contributes up to 30 per cent of China's gross domestic product, has been an important force to solve two tricky issues for China - the slow rise of farmers' income and the need to find jobs for excess rural labour force.

Ministry of Agriculture's figures show much of farmers' net incomes have been earned through township and village enterprises.

In 1996, 29.9 per cent of the average net income per capita for farmers was channeled from such enterprises. In 1999, the rate was up to about 34 per cent, increasing by roughly 4 percentage points.

Township enterprises of all sizes in China - more than 20 million last year - have employed 127 million workers, mostly rural residents.