DALIAN - Local governments should take active steps to rein in export slowdown, speed up structural changes and foster emerging growth areas, Chinese vice premier Wang Yang said during a two-day research trip to northeast China that ended on Thursday.

China now faces complex and challenging export growth prospects, which might weigh on the development of the world's second largest economy, Wang said after conducting surveys on ship-building, machinery, electronics, petrochemical, textile, plastic, food and medicine enterprises in northeastern China's Liaoning province.

Slowing export growth is the combined outcome of sluggish external demand, rising costs as well as inefficient policy implementation, Wang said.

Wang urged provincial governments facing slowing export growth to offer more preferential policy support to steady growth while facilitating structural upgrades.

China will continue to improve the quality and added value of its exports and encourage more private players to invest in export through innovative business models and fostering new growth areas, Wang added.