Chinese Customs said high-tech imports amounted to US$42.137 billion, and exports totaled US$35.753 billion, or more than 20 percent of the country's total import and export volume.

In May, the trade volume of Chinese high-tech products hit US$16.48 billion, up 57.22 percent year-on-year.

The import and export of such products in May climbed 46.96 percent and 70.32 percent on the figures for the same period of last year.

The primary export markets of Chinese high-tech products are developed countries including the United States, the European Union and Japan.

Computers and telecommunication facilities accounted for 95 percent of high-tech exports and nearly 90 percent of the exported high-tech products were traded under the processing trade.

South China's Guangdong Province exported half of the total exported high-tech products.

Exports of high-tech goods overtook that of fabrics and garments in 2002 for the first time and represented the country's second largest export sector.

The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) attributed the rapid increases to the growth of China's high-tech industry since the mid 1990s.

China instituted a series of preferential policies and measures to spur the development of the high-tech industry. A sound environment featuring positive financial, taxation and logistic conditions had been formed, the MOC said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2003)