Beijing, April 16:

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 10.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year on the back of fast-paced trade growth, Chinese president Hu Jintao said in a televised speech today.

“The mainland economy maintained good developmental momentum with our GDP in the first quarter rising by 10.2 per cent and import and export trade up by 25 per cent,” Hu said in a meeting with Taiwan’s former Kuomintang opposition leader Lien Chan. China’s economy expanded by 9.9 per cent in 2005, including 9.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

“Frankly speaking, we do not hope to pursue extreme high speed growth, we are paying more attention to the efficiency and quality of development,” Hu said. The co-mmerce ministry announ-ced that China’s trade surplus had surged by 98.5 per cent in March.

Blame game

WASHINGTON: A decade ago, China was hailed Asia’s saviour for stoutly defending its currency peg to the US dollar and containing the region’s worst financial crisis. By aggressively intervening to keep yuan undervalued and its exports less expensive, Be-ijing is preventing most ot-her Asian economies, fro-m Japan to India. — AFP

New project

BEIJING: China began work on Sunday on a $1.79 billion hydroelectric project which will become the biggest dam on the Yellow River. Work began on the Laxiwa Hydroelectric Station in Qinghai. The 250 metre-high dam, the highest on the Yellow River, is expected to have 4,200 MW of installed generation capacity. — AFP