A bird's-eye view of a ship full of containers sailing off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian province. [Photo/WeChat account: xiamen_swj]

Xiamen in Fujian province saw its foreign trade volume reach 134.75 billion yuan ($21.22 billion) in the first two months of this year, an increase of 10.9 percent year-on-year.

Of which, Xiamen's exports reached 72.62 billion yuan, an increase of 19.1 percent year-on-year, which was 5.5 percentage points and 1.5 percentage points higher than the national average and provincial average, respectively.

Its imports increased 2.7 percent year-on-year to 62.13 billion yuan, ranking first among the nine cities in the province and amounted to 57.2 percent of the province's total imports.

Xiamen's trade with BRICS countries increased rapidly at 16.6 percent year-on-year to 10.66 billion yuan during the first two months, of which Brazil stood at the top with its imports and exports volumes reaching 3.35 billion yuan, up 24.2 percent.

Statistics showed that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United States, and the European Union were Xiamen's top three trade partners during the first two months. Their trade volumes with Xiamen grew by 7.4 percent, 23.2 percent, and 38.7 percent to 22.85 billion yuan, 20.25 billion yuan and 18.38 billion yuan, respectively.

As Xiamen has been expanding new foreign markets, its imports and exports volumes with Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and the Democratic Republic of Congo grew at over 50 percent in the first two months.

The city's vital private sector grew rapidly during the period, with the sector's imports and exports volumes reaching 53.8 billion yuan, up 18.4 percent year-on-year.