XIONG Weiping, the chairman of China's mining giant Chinalco, has forecast that his country's demand for commodities will outpace its economic growth in the next few years as the world's fastest-growing economy industrialises. In a speech in Beijing, Mr Xiong urged China's government to fast-track major economic and financial market reforms to open China up to the rest of the world. The country is now Australia's largest trading partner, with trade worth up to $US130bn ($137bn) a year. Mr Xiong said China's mineral demand had grown by 25.3 per cent in the past 10 years while the economy had expanded 10.3 per cent. Its economy is expected to grow by 7.5 per cent this year. "Faster economic growth means faster growth of demand for minerals," Mr Xiong said. Chinalco is a state-owned company and also a major shareholder in Rio Tinto. The increase of mineral demand is going to be larger than GDP. If China's future GDP growth stands at 7.5 per cent then the growth rate of China's demand for minerals will be above 7.5 per cent. China will enter a key stage of accelerating industrialisation and urbanisation in the next 10 years and longer when the demand for mineral resources will continue to be strong In light of this, we can come to the conclusion that for a long period of time it will still be an important period of strategic opportunity for China's mining industry. Mr Xiong said he believed the rest of the world, including Australia, needed to take more advantage of the rapid economic development. The Chinese government next weekend will hold its third plenum, where economic and political directives for the next few years will be set. It is expected major economic reforms will be put in place to increase its role in the global economy. Mr Xiong said the government should fast-track the changes to ensure China maintained its growth rate. "Industrialisation and urbanisation are China's two major growth engines," he said. Since the implementation of the reforms and the opening up policy, China's economic growth was mainly achieved through industrialisation, which has enabled China to grow rapidly for the past 30 years. Judging by the indicators, China is only semi-industrialised and still has a long way to go. Mr Xiong said China needed to "keep pace with the times" and make sure its economy continued to modernise. He added that China had to keep pursuing "institutional innovation" to transform its growth model. He said this could lead to a "new round of economic take-off" for China.