A bird's-eye view of Xiamen, Fujian province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In the first quarter of this year, Xiamen's trade volume with other RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) member countries grew 3.5 percent year-on-year to 68.31 billion yuan ($10.51 billion), accounting for 33.3 percent of the foreign trade volume's total.

Of which, the exports grew 15.3 percent year-on-year to 27.66 billion yuan while imports dropped 3.3 percent to 40.65 billion yuan during the same period.

Statistics from Xiamen Customs showed that the exports and imports of private companies increased by 13.2 percent to 22.41 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, indicating rapid growth.

The exports and imports of the State-owned companies increased by 6.9 percent to 27.99 billion yuan while that of the foreign-capital companies decreased by 10.6 percent to 17.9 billion during the same period.

Statistics also showed that mechanical and electrical products, metal ore and ore sand as well as agricultural produce were the major imports, while mechanical and electrical products and labor-intensive products were the major exports.

In the first quarter of this year, Xiamen exported mechanical and electrical products worth 12.18 billion yuan to other RCEP member countries, up 12.2 percent, while the city imported mechanical and electrical products worth 8.26 billion yuan, up 3.1 percent.