South China's Guangdong Province chalked up 140.35 billion US dollars in imports and exports last year, a rise of 8.13 percent over 1998.

This was the fifth year Guangdong scored over 100 billion US dollars in foreign trade, placing the province number one in the country in terms of foreign trade volume, according to local sources.

Exports via the processing industry made up 60.44 billion US dollars, accounting for 77.8 percent of Guangdong's total export volume, while processing imports were 42.07 billion US dollars, making up 67.1 percent of total imports.

General trade exports picked up rapidly in the later half of 1999 and climbed to 15.41 billion US dollars, accounting for 19.8 percent of total exports. Since China stepped up the fight against smuggling in August 1998, general trades have increased rapidly, making up 13.86 billion US dollars last year, 22.1 percent of all imports.

About 50 percent of the province's total exports were electro-mechanical commodities which features high added value, high technological content, and strong competitiveness.

The fast growth of the province's foreign trade is attributed to optimized product mix for exports and to the fact that companies of varying ownership are allowed to engage in foreign trade in the province.