Belgium is the world's largest exporter of pharmaceuticals, chemical products and man-made fibers, figures from the World Trade Organization (WTO) showed Friday.

The WTO data showed that export of goods from Belgium has doubled in the last six years, making the country the 10th biggest exporting country in the world in 2006, ahead of Russia, South Korea and Singapore, Belgian media reported.

The leading position of Belgium -- a country with just 30,500 square kilometers of area and 10 million population -- is mainly due to the composition of its export, and more particularly to the concentration of pharmaceutical, chemical and plastic industries in and around the port of Antwerp.

Large pharmaceutical concerns such as GSK, Pfizer and Janssens Pharmaceutica have grouped their entire production of vaccines in Belgium, which contribute greatly to Belgium's 10 percent share of the global trade in pharmaceuticals.

Belgium is also the No. 10 importing country in the world. One reason for the big import volume is that the exporting industries are in need of raw material for their production.

The other reason is that a big portion of the incoming goods to Belgian ports are transferred to other European countries by train, lorry or canal boat.

According to the WTO figures, Germany remains the world's biggest exporter last year, ahead of the United States and China.

Source: Xinhua