The eastern mainland coastal port city of Ningbo has registered double-digit growth with all its major trading partners in the nine months from January to September, Xinhua New Agency reports.The continuous economic growth within the European Union, coupled with improved Sino-EU political and economic relations, has resulted in a 22.9 per cent year-on-year growth in trade between Ningbo and the EU amounting to US$11.26 billion in the first nine months of 2006. Ningbo imports from the EU dropped 18.5 per cent to US$1.18 billion while exports surged 30.7 per cent to US$10.07 billion during the period. The trade surplus of US$8.89 billion in favour of the mainland city was 42.1 per cent up on the same period last year. Trade between China and ASEAN countries has entered a "period of golden growth", according to Xinhua. The trade between Ningbo and ASEAN rose 16.4 per cent to US$3.098 billion between January and September. Imports dropped slightly by 2.3 per cent to US$1.224 billion while exports to the ASEAN bloc from Ningbo shot up by 33 per cent to US$1.873 billion. Since China joined the "Bangkok Agreement", now called the "Asian-Pacific Trade Agreement" in 2001, trade between China and South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Laos has grown year by year. Statistics supplied by the Ningbo customs show that Ningbo's trade with the five countries surged 31.1 per cent to US$3.913 billion. Imports were up 21.2 per cent to US$2.333 billion, while exports soared 49.2 per cent to US$1.58 billion. Official statistics also showed that trade between Ningbo and Japan increased by 12.7 per cent to US$3.61 billion, the report said.
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