Mainland-HK trade up by 18.7% in 2007

BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Trade volume between the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) reached 197.25 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, up 18.7 percent year-on-year, statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed.

The mainland's exports to the HKSAR reached 184.43 billion U.S. dollars, and imports from the HKSAR reached 12.82 billion U.S. dollars, up 18.7 percent and 18.8 percent respectively, according to the MOC statistics.

The mainland attracted direct investment from the HKSAR in 16,208 projects last year, up 4.6 percent and the actual use of Hong Kong direct investment reached 27.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 30 percent.

By the end of December 2007, direct investment of the HKSAR in the mainland totaled 284.7 billion U.S. dollars in 285,763 projects since figures first began in 1978 with the opening up of trade between the mainland and Hong Kong.

The HKSAR's direct investment in the mainland ranked first among all direct investment not from the Chinese mainland, accounting for 40.4 percent of the total.