Logistics Development in China: A Provider Perspective (Notes and Comments‪)‬

China has become a global manufacturing center with its high economic growth rate. Since its economic reform and opening up in 1978, China's economy keeps booming, with an annual GDP growth rate of nearly 10 percent. Some economists forecast that China will become the second largest economy within twenty years (Wang et al. 2006). To take advantage of its immense market potential, many multinational enterprises have entered the market and China has become a major recipient of foreign investments in the world. China's logistics industry has entered a stage of fast growth. There exist tremendous opportunities as well as intense competition, especially since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. The average annual growth rate of the logistics industry in China was 22.2 percent, and logistics expenditures accounted for about 21.8 percent of the GDP between 1992 and 2004 (Wang et al. 2006). The logistics industry reported an annual growth rate of 31 percent in 1999, 35 percent in 2000, 55 percent in 2001, and was expected to continue to expand quickly in the near future (Bolton and Wei 2003).