The Chinese mainland saw its trade with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao continue to rise in the first half of the year, said sources with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Tuesday.

Trade volume across the Taiwan Straits rose 10.1 percent year-on-year to 55.3 billion US dollars in the January to June period, with the mainland's exports up 15.1 percent to 11 billion US dollars and imports up 9 percent to 44.3 billion US dollars.

By the end of June, the island had invested an accumulative 44.6 billion US dollars on the mainland, taking a 6.2-percent share in the total investment the mainland received from overseas.

With a 40.5-percent share and direct investment totaling 290.3 billion US dollars, Hong Kong maintained its position as the biggest investor on the mainland.

In the first half, the mainland's exports to Hong Kong surged 24.3 percent to 83.9 billion US dollars, while imports rose 12.8 percent to 5.79 billion US dollars.

Meanwhile, the mainland saw the number of its Hong Kong-invested projects increase seven percent to 7,517, worth 10.5 billion US dollars, up 19.3 percent.

The mainland's exports to Macao rose 28.1 percent to 1.2 billion US dollars, while imports were down by 9.2 percent to 130 million US dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)