BEIJING — Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua on April 2 called for more efforts to ramp up support for foreign trade enterprises and ensure stable foreign trade.

Hu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while chairing a symposium on foreign trade situations.

Noting the good start of China's foreign trade in the first quarter of the year based on the joint efforts of government authorities and enterprises, Hu underlined the more severe and complex external environment for foreign trade.

He urged the relevant authorities to attach greater importance to optimizing services for companies in foreign trade, promoting the implementation of favorable policies that have been introduced, and actively helping the companies solve problems.

The authorities should closely follow foreign trade situations, make accurate analyses and judgments, and pay full heed to the opinions of experts, scholars and enterprises, Hu said.

He also called on research institutions and experts to strengthen related analysis and research, while encouraging enterprises to actively respond to new situations and problems in production and operation.