China seeks foreign investment in five-year trade plan

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's commerce ministry reiterated its determination to lure foreign investment in manufacturing and its backing for domestic companies going overseas in a foreign trade plan for the five years to 2020 published on Monday.

The plan called for China to play a greater role in setting the rules of global trade, while moving the focus to improving the structure and quality of its foreign trade.

It did not give firm targets for growth in imports and exports, however, following a practice started last year after China missed its foreign trade targets in 2014 and 2015.

China's 2016 exports were down 7.5 percent in dollar terms for the period from Jan to Nov, while imports had fallen 6.2 percent, putting foreign trade on pace to contract for the second year in a row.

(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk and Elias Glenn; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)