6. Reform and opening up continued to deepen.
We carried forward reforms in major areas and key links. Ministries directly under the State Council eliminated or streamlined another 314 items subject to examination and approval, making this the sixth time they did this and bringing the total number of eliminated or streamlined items to 2,497, 69.3% of the total. We upheld and improved the basic economic system, and steadily carried out the reform and reorganization of state-owned enterprises. Nine companies of which central government enterprises hold the controlling interest became listed on domestic or overseas stock markets, and the pilot project for standardizing boards of directors was extended to 51 central government enterprises. We formulated and implemented the guidelines on further supporting the sound development of small and micro businesses, and introduced 42 detailed rules for implementing the guidelines on encouraging and guiding the sound development of nongovernmental investment. We intensified efforts to reform prices of resource products, progressed smoothly with trial reforms of progressive pricing for household electricity consumption and the pricing mechanism for natural gas, and further improved the pricing mechanisms for electricity generated from renewable energy sources and for hydropower and nuclear power. We accelerated reform of the fiscal, taxation, and financial systems. We extended trials to replace the imposition of business tax with value-added tax (VAT) to nine provinces and municipalities directly under the central government and three cities specially designated in the state plan. We established experimental zones for comprehensive financial reform and pushed forward rural financial reform. We expanded the floating range for interest rates on RMB deposits and loans, made the exchange rates for RMB against other currencies more flexible, and steadily widened the use of RMB in cross-border trade and investment. We achieved fresh progress in comprehensive rural reforms and the tenure reform for collective forests, and carried out the trial reform of state-owned forestry farms in an orderly manner. We obtained significant results in the reform of the medical and health care systems and launched the plan for deepening it in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period. We consolidated the system for basic drugs, and pressed ahead with the comprehensive reform of community-level medical and health care institutions and the trial reform of county-level public hospitals. The three basic medical insurance schemes have covered over 95% of the country' s urban and rural residents. We made new breakthroughs in reforming and making innovations in cultural systems and mechanisms, and basically completed the tasks of turning the nation' s state-owned theatre troupes into enterprises or dissolving or merging them.
Our external economy maintained steady growth. In the face of world economic stagnation and weak external demand, we promptly introduced policies and measures to stabilize and stimulate foreign trade. As a result, China' s total trade volume grew 6.2%, and we maintained and expanded our market share in international trade. Exports grew 7.9%, and imports grew 4.3%, resulting in a trade surplus of $231.1 billion. The Revised Catalogue of Industries for Foreign Investment was implemented, and there was an obvious trend of foreign investment going to service industries. Non-financial foreign direct investment actually utilized in 2012 totaled $111.7 billion, down 3.7%. Chinese companies expanded their overseas presence more quickly, and last year China' s non-financial outward direct investment reached $77.2 billion, up 28.6%. Receipts from overseas contracting projects amounted to $116.6 billion, an increase of 12.7%.
