China overtakes US to become both world’s leading exporter and importer of ICT products – UNCTAD

For the first time, China is not only the top exporter of information and communications technology (ICT) goods such as computers and cell phones but – since 2010 – the largest importer, new statistics provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has shown.

According to UNCTAD’s new data released March 29, 2012, China or Hong Kong (China) are the top destinations for seven of the world’s 10 largest ICT goods exporters.

The finding, the UN trade agency, says “echoes other trends revealed by the Organization’s just-released statistics for the period 2000 to 2010.”

The agency indicates that developing nations are playing a larger role in ICT goods trade and that the sector displayed resilience during the global economic crisis.

Given details, UNCTAD said China, with $284 billion of ICT goods imports, also overtook the United States of America as the largest importer adding that the expanding role of China and Hong Kong (China) partly reflects close intraregional trade links in the ICT sector.

“China’s exports of such goods were 10 times the level reported at the start of the decade. The country in 2010 exported close to $460 billion, ahead of Hong Kong (China) ($177 billion) and the United States ($135 billion),” it said. And between 2000 and 2010, The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Ireland, and several other developed countries have experienced steep falls in the absolute values of their ICT exports.

UNCTAD observed that the importance of developing Asia as an exporter of ICT goods was further reinforced. “It increased from 58 percent of global ICT exports in 2008 to 63 percent in 2010,” it noted.

By Ekow Quandzie