The economically strong Guangdong Province, south China, posted a foreign trade volume of US$500 billion last year, US$100 million more than the previous year, according to the provincial bureau for feign trade and economic cooperation.

According to the bureau, high and new technologies export contributed greatly to the surge in the province's total trade volume. Statistics show that high and new technologies exports made up 34.5 percent of Guangdong's total export for the first 11 months last year.

Private export-oriented businesses were another force behind Guangdong's increasing trade volume. In the first 11 months of last year, the province's private businesses exported products of US$42 billion in value, the NO. 1 in China and a rise of 58 percent year on year.

Guangdong approved 905 foreign-financed enterprises, each with a total investment of US$10 million in the first 11 months last year. Involved contracted foreign funds totaled US$14 billion, according to Sunday's People's Daily.

Guangdong's GDP is expected to reach 2.58 trillion yuan (US$330.7 billion) this year, up 14 percent from last year, according to provincial government predictions.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2007)