Foreign trade of China's Sichuan up 14.4 pct in first three quarters

CHENGDU, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Sichuan Province saw the value of its imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year grow 14.4 percent to nearly 670 billion yuan (about 104.2 billion U.S. dollars), local authorities said Monday.

The province recorded its foreign trade value at about 196.6 billion yuan, 222.4 billion yuan and 250 billion yuan in the first, second and third quarters, respectively, which points to the momentum of its import and export growth, according to customs authorities in Chengdu, the provincial capital.

The robust export growth is mainly attributed to the rise of international commodity prices against the backdrop of the recovery of the global economy and trade, said Pan Xudong, head of the statistics and analysis department of Chengdu Customs.

In the first nine months, the foreign trade contributed by Sichuan's electronic-information industry logged about 475.6 billion yuan, up 11 percent year on year.

The development of electronic information, new-energy batteries and other industries in clusters also helps optimize the structure of the province's foreign trade and accelerate the transition of its driving forces, Pan added.