Beijing's foreign trade increased sharply in the first half of 2003, according to the statistics from Beijing Customs house.

The total foreign trade volume reached 32.44 billion US dollarsin the first six months, up 37.2 percent year-on-year. Exports made up 7.81 billion US dollars, up 40.9 percent, and imports were24.63 billion US dollars, a rise of 36.1 percent.

Beijing's foreign trade was dominated by high-tech products. Exports of high-tech products totaled 1.43 billion US dollars, up 43 percent year-on-year, and imports reached 2.49 billion US dollars, accounting for 49 percent of the total, noted the Customs statistics.

Europe, Japan and the United States remained the major markets for commodities exported by the capital, and Beijing's imported commodities were mainly from Asian countries and regions, including Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK).

Foreign-funded enterprises played a leading role in the municipality's foreign trade, recording 2.24 billion US dollars inexports and 2.83 billion US dollars in imports from January to June, up 42.7 percent and 36.5 percent respectively.

Processing trade exports made up more than half of the city's total exports, but imports were dominated by general trade.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2003)