The two-week trade fair, or the Guangzhou Fair covered almost all types of export commodities and is considered as the weather vane of China's exports.

About 135,000 traders from 191 countries or regions participated in the fair, a record number, and trade volume rose 9.6 percent from last year to 18.47 billion US dollars.

Foreign trade experts predicted that China would continue its rapid growth in export trade in the first half of 2003 as the orders in the fair are usually aimed at the following year.

With the worldwide recession and the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the United States, China witnessed a slowdown in export growth to just 6.9 percent last year.

Many Chinese economists anticipated earlier this year that China would face tough challenges to its exports with further reductions in its growth rate.

In fact, China still maintains a good momentum of rapid growth in its foreign trade with 19.4 percent growth during the first three quarters of 2002.

"China's WTO entry has elevated the confidence of international investors in China, thus enlarging the room for China's foreign trade," Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng said at the fair.

Shi noted that China's imports and exports were expected to top 600 billion US dollars this year.

Under its WTO commitments, China has adopted a series of measures to open its market much wider to the outside world, attracting large sums of direct foreign investment.

Statistics show that the exports of foreign-funded enterprises accounted over 50 percent of China's total exports during the first half of this year. "Actually, we have underestimated the positive impact the WTO entry has on our exports," said foreign trade expert Xie Ruxiao, of Guangdong Silk Group.

Experts said greater dynamics and vitality had been released by the reform of the foreign trade mechanism in China, which has to open its foreign trade within the WTO framework over three years.

The Chinese government has further standardised and relaxed controls over the management of qualifications of imports and exports companies, gradually replacing its administrative approval with certificates and registration.

With easier access to the international market, an increasing number of small and middle-sized enterprises and sectors of different ownership are embarking on foreign trade.

About 14,000 more enterprises became engaged in importing and exporting during the first half of 2002. Their export trade volume accounted for 40 percent of China's increased exports in the same period.

In economic hubs like Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, the private sector has become the major driving force of their exports.

Of the 980 enterprises from Zhejiang province attending the Guangzhou Fair, 826 were of non-public ownership.

"The private sector contributes a lot to Zhejiang's exports," said Cheng Shichang, an official from Zhejiang Provincial Administration of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Enterprises from the western regions also displayed their great export potential at the fair. The trade volume of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province doubled over the last fair.

The Guangzhou Fair is the oldest and largest of its kind in China. It has been held twice annually, in April and October, since 1957.