02-20-06,9:30am

China's GDP in 2005 has reached 18.2321 trillion yuan, or 2.23 trillion US dollars. This total number will surpass that of France and near Britain by known statistics, Shanghai Securities News reports.

At a meeting concluded Sunday in Beijing on the economic situation in 2006 and enterprise reforms, Deputy-director of China's National Bureau of Statistics Qiu Xiaohua said that although GDP figures of other countries are still under calculation, judged from their economic performance in the first three quarters, China's economic aggregate might be at the same level with Britain and may even outpace it to rank world fourth, next only to the United States, Japan and Germany, to be a real economic power.

In turning itself from a big economy into a powerful economy, Qiu believes, China faces restraints in the two basic factors of resource and market, which requires the nation to make good use of both domestic and international markets and resources and cope with resource pressure by relying on technological improvement.

Predictions before say China's per capita GDP would reach 3,000 US dollars by 2020, a goal that might be obtained by 2010 at the current growth rate, and it's possible for the figure to hit 5,000 US dollars by 2020. But growth quality must be continuously improved while the pace is maintained, Qiu pointed out.