Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Tibet posts strong foreign trade growth

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-12 20:13

Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region posted a strong growth of foreign trade in 2008, exceeding $500 million for the first time, despite the impact of the March 14 riot in Lhasa and the global recession.

In the first eleven months, the autonomous region recorded $536 million worth of foreign trade, a year-on-year rise of 54 percent, Ma Xiangcun, the regional commercial department head, said on Monday.

However, the import and export volumes dramatically decreased after the Lhasa riot in the first half of 2008, Ma said.

Following the riot, Tibet tightened its border security, which in turn hurt border trade. The lowered export rebate rate and the deepening global financial crisis also contributed to the decrease, Ma said in September 2008, while predicting the region's foreign trade volume to be about $380 million in 2008.

To attract more foreign investment, the region made preferential policies to encourage foreign trade. The bureau approved four overseas-funded companies last year, with a contractual investment of $27.14 million in total.

Tibet was trading with 55 countries and regions as of late 2007, a rise of 13 from the previous year. Nepal remained Tibet's largest trade partner. The volume of foreign trade between the two rose by 45.81 percent to hit $262 million, accounting for 66.67 percent of Tibet's total foreign trade.