East China's Jiangsu Province posted a record 170.86 billion US dollars of foreign trade in 2004, representing a 50.4 percent rise from the previous year, the latest statistics show.

The provincial economic and trade department confirmed that the eastern province earned 87.5 billion dollars from exports and reported 83.36 billion dollars in imports in 2004, up 48 percent and 52.9 percent respectively from that of 2003.

Foreign-funded businesses contribute to 79.3 percent of the total imports and exports in the province, reaching 135.54 billion dollars.

Imports and exports of state-owned companies rose 10.7 percent to hit 20.32 billion dollars, accounting for 11.9 percent of the province's total.

Machinery and electronic products continued to take the lion's share of the province's exports with the volume totaling 58.04 billion dollars, up 55.6 percent compared with the 2003 level.

Jiangsu has the second largest trade volume among provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, after the southern province of Guangdong's 357.13 billion dollars.