The total value of foreign trade in Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu province, recorded a new high in 2018, according to statistics recently released by Qidong customs. 

The gross value of imports and exports in Qidong over the past year reached 19.43 billion yuan ($2.88 billion), a year-on-year increase of 14.4 percent. 

The growth rate of foreign trade in Qidong was 6.7 percentage points higher than the average in Nantong. 

The total value of exports in Qidong was 15.16 billion yuan, increasing by 9.4 percent over 2017; the gross value of imports reached 4.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.6 percent, ranking in third place among counties and county-level cities in Nantong. 

According to statistics, private enterprises in Qidong contributed a lot to the booming foreign trade industry. The gross value of imports and exports done by Qidong private enterprises in 2018 was 8.05 billion yuan, which represents a year-on-year increase of 30.8 percent.