By Rex Annan

    ACCRA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign exchange reserves rose from 1,577 billion U.S. dollars in 1978 to 1, 950 billion dollars in 2008 to rank first in the world, said Yu Wenzhe, Chinese Ambassador in Ghana, on Tuesday.

    To the same token, China's per-capital annual income of 62.5 dollars in 1978 reached 9,863 dollars in the urban areas, showing an increase of over 100 percent.

    Ambassador Yu Wenzhe announced this during a press briefing which was aimed at highlighting China's significant socio-economic development for the past 60 years.

    The People's Republic of China would be 60 years on Oct. 1, 2009 and the Chinese people and its allies are expected to celebrate the country's 60th anniversary with pomp and pride.

    The stated achievement, he noted, was due to China's vigorous pursuance of a strategy or model that featured high speed socio-economic development.

    He was happy that China has metamorphosed from agricultural country to an industrial nation with the result that the country is now ranked the third largest manufacturing country in the world.

    On the strength of China's development, Yu urged African leaders to translate the continent's advantage in natural resources into socio-economic development.

    The ambassador disclosed that in 2006, the output of 172 categories of Chinese products ranked first on the world market, adding that about 70 percent of DVDs and toys; 50 percent of telephone sets and shoes; one-third of colour TVs, bags and suit cases were made in China.

    To be part of Ghana's future success, he said, China had invested more in Ghana in the fields of economic and technical assistance, which included grant and cash, human resource training among others.

    Touching on China's investment in Ghana, he said, China topped the list of countries with the highest number of registered projects in Ghana.

    "Up to June 30, 2009, China had registered 387 projects in Ghana valued at 235.18 million U.S. dollars," he added.

    "To achieve a sustainable and steady development of China-Ghana bilateral trade, both sides should adopt effective measures to balance the trade," he stressed.

    Yu said this against the backdrop that China's export to Ghana had increased rapidly between 2002 and 2007 as against Chinese imports from Ghana, which he noted, had decreased for two consecutive years since 2005.