Companies with foreign investment in China should shoulder the responsibility of ensuring and improving product quality, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Friday at the Summer Davos meeting in Dalian.

Sixty percent of China's exported products are made in foreign- funded companies, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the NDRC. These companies should have an eye to their product quality in terms of designing, setting up standards and making requirements for raw materials.

"Good product quality is crucial to a company's long-term development," he said.

China has been obsessed with a string of product quality complaints, with its exported toys recalled and food accused of containing toxins.

According to a report by the China Central Television (CCTV), statistics released by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine showed that conformity rate of China's exported food to the United States was 99 percent, 99 percent and 99.2 percent from 2004 to 2006, while the rate of imported food from US was 99.02 percent, 98.85 percent and 99.08 percent.

"The quality of Chinese products is improving, which is the main trend," said Zhang. "The conformity rate of exported Chinese products is even higher than that of some imported foreign ones."

Both Chinese and foreign-funded enterprises needs to pay more attention to improving product quality, and the government needs to perfect inspection and monitoring systems, the official said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)