Shanghai, an economic powerhouse in east China, has taken measures to develop services serving foreign trade in the coming years to ensure sustained growth in the sector, said a senior trade official.

Zhou Bo, head of the city's foreign trade and economic cooperation commission, said Shanghai reaped 186 billion U.S. dollars in foreign trade in 2005, marking a year-on-year growth of 16.2 percent.

The figures involved 91 billion U.S. dollars in exports and 93.5 billion U.S. dollars in imports, up 23.8 percent and 8.1 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The trade services in import and export reaped 14.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 40.1 percent year-on-year, Zhou said.

Source: Xinhua