China is expected to account for 13% of the world’s total exports this year as the country shipped more high-value products to both developed and emerging markets between January and November, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said. China’s proportion of exports amounted to 12.4% of the global market last year. The country’s exports of rail equipment, as well as power and telecommunications products to developed markets rose 10% year-on-year in the first 11 months. Shen Danyang, Spokesman for the Ministry, said even though China’s foreign trade seems weaker than expected due to lower global demand and rising production costs, the country has continued to optimize its range of products and approach to the global market through new trade routes and regional cooperation arrangements. Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng told the WTO Ministerial Conference in Nairobi last week that the biggest challenges which currently confront the multilateral trade system are trade protectionism and a proliferation of regional trade agreements. China’s foreign trade dropped 7.8% year-on-year to CNY22.08 trillion from January to November. Of this, CNY12.71 trillion was exports, which were down 2.2%. The nation’s trade surplus during the same period surged 63% to CNY3.34 trillion. The country reported CNY3.16 trillion of trade with the European Union, its largest trading partner, in the first 11 months, down 7.7% year-on-year, while the figure was CNY3.15 trillion for the United States, the nation’s second-largest trading partner, up 1.9%. “Based on the current trading volume, China will remain the world’s largest trader this year,” said Gu Xuebin, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, the China Daily reports.

A meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo pledged to keep the country’s economic growth rate within a “reasonable range” next year. This will be accomplished by stepping up supply-side reforms and pushing forward urbanization. China is aiming for an annual average growth of no less than 6.5% in the next five years. The government will promote mergers and acquisitions next year, as well as allowing strong companies to survive and weak ones to close under the principle of “survival of the fittest”. Premier Li Keqiang pledged recently to step up supply-side reforms to generate new growth engines in the economy while tackling factory overcapacity and so-called zombie companies. Huang Yiping, Economics Professor at Peking University, said zombie enterprises, which are unable to pay off their debts and cannot survive without outside support, are too big a drain on financial and labor resources and constrain economic growth. According to Wang Hui, Professor of Urban Economy and Public Administration at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, settling migrant workers and their families in cities would top the agenda at the Central Economic Work Conference, which was held from December 18 till 20.

Top Communist Party cadres have gathered in Beijing for two meetings: the annual Central Economic Work Conference to review economic performance and chart out next year’s policies, and a special urban works convention seeking a better approach to develop cities. Proper management of China’s urbanization process is vital to sustaining economic growth and winning the support of the country’s 270 million migrant workers. “The urban work conference could be very interesting, while the economic work conference is unlikely to offer big surprises,” said Shen Jianguang, Chief Economist for Mizuho Securities Asia. “The economic work conference addresses concerns mainly for 2016, but decisions made at the urban work conference may affect China’s growth not only next year but also in the next decade.” The Communist Party’s Politburo called for the process of giving migrant workers full urban residency status to be sped up. The two meetings in Beijing are being held at a time of slowing economic growth. They also come on the heels of the United States Federal Reserve’s first interest rate increase in a decade. “China’s new urbanization strategy is very important because you can’t build up a comprehensive well-off society by 2020 with millions of people remaining half-urbanized,” said Ye Weichun, Researcher affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the South China Morning Post reports.

Many manufacturers of industrial robots in China missed their sales targets this year but they are still raising their targets for 2016 despite expectations of another challenging year ahead. GSK CNC Equipment, one of the top players in this sector based in the Guangdong capital of Guangzhou, sold 550 industrial robots in 2014 priced from CNY100,000 to CNY1 million. It targeted sales of 1,100 units this year and 2,000 in 2016, but only sold around 800 units this year. Guangdong Jaten Robot & Automation predicted earlier that its annual output would reach CNY160 million in 2015, marking a dramatic jump from CNY70 million in 2014, but now CNY90 million sounds more realistic. One potential client after another postponed their investment plans. The government is aggressively promoting increased automation to offset rapidly rising wages and labor shortages. In March, the provincial government of Guangdong announced that it would invest CNY943 billion to replace manual workers with robots within three years. Some Chinese robot manufacturers are able to produce robots at half the price of their Japanese competitors, but still need to import crucial components and the price is often still too high for many prospective customers, the South China Morning Post reports.

China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) has got the green light from the Russian government to buy a 20% stake in Russian petrochemical and gas company Sibur. The take-over involves two stages: Sinopec will acquire 10% of Sibur for about USD1.34 billion, then buy the other 10% within the next three years. “It could be a good investment if you look at it in the long term,” said Wang Qiang, Senior Analyst at China Galaxy Securities Co. Sibur covers a wide business scope in both the upstream and downstream sectors, making Sinopec a strategic investor. Wang Yupu, Chairman of Sinopec, said earlier that the vertically integrated upstream and petrochemicals business model of Sibur is highly complementary with Sinopec’s businesses.