Foreign trade in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong province, saw rapid growth in the first two months of this year.

Foreign trade in January increased 38.3 percent year-on-year to 22.61 billion yuan ($3.48 billion), while the figure rose 54.4 percent year-on-year to 10.01 billion yuan in February.

In the first two months, general trade imports and exports reached 20.82 billion yuan, up 47.3 percent year-on-year and accounting for 92.1 percent of the city's total imports and exports.

Imports and exports of private enterprises during the period were valued at 13.83 billion yuan, accounting for 61.2 percent of the city's total, while the figure for foreign-invested enterprises was 4.87 billion yuan, accounting for 21.5 percent of the total.

The city's imports and exports to countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative were valued at 5.25 billion yuan, an increase of 48.9 percent year-on-year. Exports of automobiles and machine tool products rose sharply, while exports of vegetables and pharmaceuticals declined.