Foreign trade in Jiangsu Province, an important economic engine in east China, rose 50.4 percent year-on-year in 2004 to reach 170.86 billion US dollars, exceeding the 170-billion-US dollar mark for the first time, customs sources in this provincial capital said.

The province accounted for 14.8 percent of China's total foreign trade last year, ranking second nationwide. Its foreign trade growth was 14.7 percentage points higher than the national average.

The total trade volume included 87.5 billion US dollars in export value, up 48 percent over the year-earlier level; and 83.36 billion US dollars in import value, up 52.9 percent. The trade surplus stood at 4.14 billion US dollars.

Overseas-invested companies continued to dominate Jiangsu's foreign trade, with a lion's share of 79.3 percent. Their external trade amounted to 135.54 billion US dollars, up 57.5 percent year-on-year. The total included 65.22 billion US dollars in export value, up 58.6 percent; and 70.32 billion US dollars, up 56.6 percent, the customs sources said.

Electromechanical products held the sway in Jiangsu's foreign sales last year. The province sold abroad 58.04 billion US dollars worth of machines and electronics, or 66.3 percent of its total export value.

The customs sources added that Japan, the European Union, the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan Province remained the top trade partners of Jiangsu.