Firms urged to diversify export markets

The country faces "grim prospects for exports" next year and so enterprises should look beyond traditional markets, the commerce minister said yesterday.

More than 60 percent of the country's exports are destined to the United States, the European Union and Japan, the three major economies worst hit by the economic crisis, Chen Deming told a national commerce work conference in Beijing.

"We need to work very hard in other markets to make up for the drop in exports to the three major economies, but exports to emerging markets are getting more difficult, too," Chen said.