The total value of goods imports and exports in western China reached 2.06 trillion yuan (about 304.85 billion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of this year, up 18.5 percent year on year, setting a new record for the same period in history, according to Chengdu Customs in southwest China.
The figures represent double-digit growth for six consecutive months, contributing 11.7 percent to the national foreign trade growth during the same period.
Among them, exports totaled 1.3 trillion yuan, up 16.6 percent year on year, while imports reached 759.67 billion yuan, a year on year increase of 22 percent.
In the January-May period, a total of 39,000 companies in western China registered actual import and export performances, an increase of 18.5 percent year on year. Among them, 36,000 were private enterprises.
During the same period, western China's imports and exports to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.2 percent year on year, accounting for over 60 percent of western China's total foreign trade.
Covering 72 percent of the country's land area and home to 27 percent of its population, western China comprises 12 provincial-level regions -- Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xizang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi and Qinghai.
Western China's foreign trade value hits record high in Jan-May
