Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region posted a record high 223 million US dollars of foreign trade in 2004, posing a 38.7-percent rise over the previous year.

The autonomous region did 130 million US dollars of exports and93 million US dollars of imports throughout the year, climbing 6.9percent and 136.7 percent respectively over the 2003 figures, said Tan Yungao, director of the regional commerce department.

General trade totaled 132 million US dollars, including 44 million US dollars of exports and 88 million US dollars of imports, Tan told an ongoing meeting on the region's commerce work in the regional capital Lhasa.

In 2004, Tibet did 90.66 million US dollars of border trade, up17 percent over the previous year. This includes 85.6 million US dollars of exports and 5.06 million US dollars of imports.

The autonomous region also exported 27.72 million US dollars of homegrown products, up 110.47 percent year-on-year and accounting for 21.3 percent of the region's total export volume of the year.

Tan said foreign trade growth also benefited local farmers and herders, whose aggregate income was increased by 110 million yuan (about 13 million US dollars) last year thanks to the booming border trade, particularly the robust export of homegrown products.

In 2003, the region reported 161 million US dollars of foreign trade, including 121.6 million dollars of exports and 39.5 million dollars of imports.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2005)