Trade between China's Hunan, B&R countries surges in first 2 months

CHANGSHA, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hunan Province saw its trade with countries along the Belt and Road increase by 31.2 percent in the first two months of this year, Changsha customs said Saturday.

The total volume of trade between Hunan and those countries reached 25.5 billion yuan (about 4 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, accounting for 33.2 percent of Hunan's total foreign trade.

Hunan's main trade partners were the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India and Russia. Of them, the trade volume between Hunan and ASEAN totaled 14.84 billion yuan, an increase of 46.4 percent from the same period last year.

In the first two months, Hunan exported 3.77 billion yuan of equipment manufacturing products to Belt and Road countries, an increase of 29.8 percent from a year ago. The export of rail transit equipment to these economies during the period was 130 million yuan, an increase of 435.4 percent.

According to Changsha customs, the trade growth with Belt and Road countries was driven by Hunan's efforts to promote the development of machinery, rail transit equipment and other industries.