Xinjiang's Foreign Trade Up 40 Percent In January-June PeriodSources from Urumqi Customs in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said the region's foreign trade trade increased by 40 percent in the first six months of this year.Statistics showed that Xinjiang's import and export volume reached nearly one billion US dollars during the period, with import standing at 410 million US dollars, a 25-percent increase over the same period of 1999. In June alone, Xinjiang's imports and exports exceeded 200 million US dollars, up 50 percent from the January-June period of 1999. The sources attributed the increase of Xinjiang's foreign trade to the reform and development of State-owned enterprises and cotton export. In the January-June period, the region's SOEs exported 800 million US dollars worth of goods, making up 80 percent of Xinjiang's total. Xinjiang, a leading cotton producer of China, also exported 226 million dollars worth of cotton during the period, five times that of the same period of last year. According to the sources, Xinjiang's major trade partners are Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Indonesia, Italy and Hong Kong. During the period, Xinjiang's trade volume with Kazakhstan amounted to 450 million dollars, accounting for half of Xinjiang's total. |
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