Guangdong Province, an economic powerhouse in south China, had a total foreign trade of 83.06 billion US dollars in the first quarter of this year, the highest among all provinces, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The volume represented a year-on-year growth of 14.4 percent and made up 28.1 percent of the national total for the same period.

Guangdong had a trade surplus of 7.46 billion US dollars in the three months, with its export up 21.8 percent to 45.26 billion US dollars and import up 6.6 percent to 37.8 billion US dollars.

According to the customs, Guangdong's export in the form of general trade increased by 37.2 percent to 10.22 billion US dollars, and that in the form of processing trade grew by 17.5 percent to 33.1 billion US dollars.

Companies in all forms of ownership reported growth in export, especially private companies. State-owned enterprises had a growth rate of 1.1 percent, foreign-invested enterprises 24.1 percent and private enterprises 63.5 percent.

The export of machinery and electrical products and high-tech products also increased rapidly, along with the import of materials for processing trade in the past quarter, according to the customs.