The Chinese Capital city ratified 579 overseas-funded projects during the first four months of the year, up 22.9 percent year-on-year, using 1.95 billion US dollars in contractual overseas investment, more than twice the figure a year ago, according to the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau.

About 53 percent of the contractual overseas money introduced in the four months, or 1.04 billion dollars, were injected into manufacturing industries in Beijing, four times the figure a year before, with focuses placed on electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, and automobiles, said the bureau.

In April alone, foreign trade conducted by enterprises in Beijing recorded 7.9 billion dollars, up 32 percent year-on-year.

The total included 1.55 billion dollars in exports, up 9.2 percent year-on-year, and a record high of 6.35 billion dollars in imports, up 39 percent.

Imports and exports of Shanghai have seen a record-high increase in the first four months of 2004.

According to the Shanghai Customs, from January to April, Shanghai's foreign trade totaled 84.59 billion US dollars, up 48.2 percent over the same period last year. Its imports reached 38.17 billion US dollars and exports 46.42 billion US dollars, up 51.1 and 45.9 percent respectively, year on year.

The most increase on imports was attributed by raw copper, raw cotton and ferrous ores, while increase on exports was mostly realized in electromechanical products and light industrial products like clothes and shoes.

Foreign-invested enterprises were the biggest contributor to foreign trade, which imported and exported a total of 52.87 billion US dollars worth of goods through the customs, 62.5 percent of the total volume and up 61.1 percent year-on-year.

The European Union was the top trading partner of Shanghai, realizing 16.35 billion US dollars in the first four months. Other major trading partners included Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2004)