Beijing's foreign trade exceeds US$100b in 2005

Beijing's foreign trade volume exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, creating a new high.

Figures released by Beijing Customs show that the city's total foreign trade volume in the past five years reached 393 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2005 alone, Beijing's trade volume soared to new highs of 94.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of imports and 30.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of exports, up 28.3 percent and 49.5 percent respectively.

Analysts here said Beijing's foreign trade is marked with new features in the past year, in addition to the rapid growth in both exports and imports.

The city's processing trade, with a trade volume amounting to 15.2 billion U.S. dollars, saw a 44-percent and 56-percent of growth in imports and exports respectively.

With a trade volume of 27.1 billion U.S. dollars, up by 46.6 percent from the same period of the previous year, foreign companies contributed 67.3 percent of the city's total trade volume.

The private economy reported a 93.6-percent growth in trade volume which totaled 2.79 billion U.S. dollars.

Self-employed businesses, setting foot in the export market for the first time, registered 392,000 U.S. dollars worth of goods.

The European Union continued to be Beijing's No. 1 trade partner. Japan came the second. The United States and the Republic of Korea took the third and fourth place.

The exports of high-tech products surpassed the imports for the first time in 2005, taking up over 50 percent of the trade volume which stood at 19.56 billion U.S. dollars.