The industrial sector in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality performed well in the first quarter of this year, as shown in a growth of its contribution to the city's gross domestic product, or GDP.

The sector accounted for 36.9 percent of the city's GDP in the first quarter, as against a 33-percent share in 2002 and a 34.1-percent in 2003, according to data provided by the municipal economic commission.

Between January and March, the industrial sector realized 20.3 billion yuan (2.45 billion US dollars) in value-added output, a year-on-year growth of 16.4 percent.

The growth rate was 12.4 percentage points and 6.5 percentage points, respectively, higher than those for the primary and tertiary sectors in the city.

The industrial growth was in part attributable to an improved centralization of the sector, experts from the commission said.

In 2003 there were in Chongqing 20 industrial enterprises each with total assets of one billion yuan (120.48 million US dollars).Each of the 20 enterprises posted an average growth rate of 22 percent in the first quarter of this year.

About 95 percent of the city's industrial output came from six categories of enterprises, namely motor vehicles, machines and instruments and meters, metallurgical, chemical, pharmaceutical and foodstuff.

The industrial growth was also supported by a fast increase in imports of related raw materials.

Local customs sources said that in the first quarter, Chongqingimported 68.49 million US dollars worth of auto parts, up 81.3 percent over the year-earlier level; 52.69 million dollars worth of iron ore, up 266.5 percent; 32.54 million dollars worth of rolled steel, up 45 percent; 10.88 million dollars worth of chromium ore, up 406.1 percent. All these scored a year-on-year increment of 87.86 million dollars in import volume, or 82 percentof the additional arrivals in the city for the three-month period.

The first quarter also saw Chongqing's foreign trade amounted to 700 million US dollars, up 30.2 percent year-on-year. The totalincluded 360 million dollars in export value, up 19.2 percent; and340 million dollars in import value, up 45.5 percent, the customs sources added.