Foreign trade in east China's Fujian Province grew by 14.53 percent year-on-year to 54.43 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, ranking seventh in the country, local customs statistics show.

This included 34.84 billion dollars of exports, up 18.54 percent year-on-year, and 19.59 billion dollars of imports, up 8.02 percent year-on-year, according to the statistics of the customs of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian.

Foreign-funded enterprises took up 65.73 percent of the province's total foreign trade, or 35.77 billion dollars, growing by 14.87 percent year-on-year, statistics show.

Privately-owned enterprises reported 9.5 billion dollars of foreign trade in 2005, up 34.9 percent year-on-year, while foreign trade in state-owned enterprises dropped by 2 percent from 2004 to 9.15 billion dollars.

The United States remains the largest trading partner of Fujian, with a total trade volume of 10.56 billion dollars, a rise of 20.73 percent year-on-year, statistics show.

European Union (EU) replaced Japan to become Fujian's second largest trading partner in 2005 with a total trade volume of 8.37 billion dollars, up 28.77 percent.

The trade volume between Fujian and Japan grew only by 3.41 percent year-on-year to 8.25 billion dollars in 2005, making Japan the third largest trading partner of Fujian.

Analysts attributed the slow growth to the chilly political relationship between China and Japan in the past year.

In addition, Fujian and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) witnessed momentum in their trade relationship. Fujian's foreign trade with ASEAN reached 4.66 billion dollars, up 11.72 percent year-on-year, statistics show.

Source: Xinhua