According to information released by the Shanghai Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Commission, overseas-funded firms exported US$7.095 billion worth of products during the first five months of this year, 60 per cent of the total for the city.

Overseas-funded firms have reported a more than 50 per cent annual growth rate in exports since 1998 with US$15.96 billion in total exports last year.

Exports by foreign-funded firms in Shanghai totalled US$645 million in 1991, and made up 37 per cent of all exports in 1996.

Commenting on the performance of foreign invested enterprises, Jiang Yiren, executive vice-mayor of Shanghai, said they are the main contributors to the growing Shanghai export sector.

Information technology products have the fastest growth rate of all products exported by overseas funded firms.

During the first five months of this year, exports of integrated circuits and micro-electronic parts, parts for automatic data processing equipment, and mobile phones rose by 56.6 per cent, 364 per cent and 108 per cent respectively over the same period last year.

Shanghai recorded increased exports to the United States, Malaysia, and Thailand but not to the European Union.

Shanghai also approved a total of 25,900 overseas-funded firms by the end of May, with about 5,100 of these being exporters.

Philips, Siemens and Intel were the top three overseas-funded exporters in Shanghai last year in terms of volume.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2002)