JINAN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shandong Province saw its foreign trade reach 1.56 trillion yuan (about 218 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, up 1.8 percent year on year, of which over 70 percent came from its private sector, local authorities said.
During the period, private enterprises in the province posted a 3-percent year-on-year foreign trade growth and contributed 73.6 percent of Shandong's total imports and exports. These figures also demonstrate the increasingly prominent status of the province's private sector in driving its foreign trade, said the local customs during a press conference on Tuesday.
Of the total, Shandong's exports grew 1.9 percent to nearly 925 billion yuan, while imports rose 1.7 percent to more than 638 billion yuan during the first six months of this year.
Notably, the province's trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose 12 percent year on year to a total of 632 billion yuan during the period, of which more than 80 percent came from the private sector.
