Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang pledged on Thursday to take China’s trade growth “into a new level” by improving existing policies, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

“The slowdown in foreign trade growth is a reflection of China’s ‘new normal’ economic expansion,” he was quoted as saying at a national trade conference. “But our competitive edge still remains and we have the foundation for steady trade growth in the long term.”

The policies the Vice Premier promised to improve include the mechanism on rebates of export taxes and the scale of the export insurance system, Xinhua reported. But Mr Wang did not provide further details on how it would be achieved.

China should also import more advanced technology equipment and consumer goods, Mr Wang was quoted saying.

China’s trade performance dropped by 10.8 percent year-on-year in January, after imports reported a 19.7-percent decline, the steepest since May 2009, official figures show.

Trade growth last year reached 3.4 percent from 2013, much lower than the official target of 7.5 percent that had been set for full-year 2014.