Shanghai, China's leading industrial and commercial center, scored a year-on-year rise of 55 percent in its foreign trade in the first three quarters of the year.

Figures released by Shanghai Customs showed that Shanghai did US$80.96 billion worth of foreign trade from January to September. Of the total, exports made up US$35.48 billion, up 52.8 percent, which exceeds the total exports of US$32.5 billion for the whole of 2002.

The export increase range for the first nine months is 20.5 percentage points more than the national growth average, the figures showed.

Overseas-financed ventures and state- and collectively-owned companies played key roles in boosting the metropolis' exports such as hi-tech commodities, machinery and electronic products, textiles and garments.

(eastday.com October 20,2003)