Zhejiangs imports and exports were off to a good start in the first quarter of this year, official data showed on April 20.

Foreign trade volume during the first quarter of 2017 grew strongly to 559.2 billion yuan ($81.8 billion), an increase of 23.1 percent year-on-year. Exports rose 15.8 percent year-on-year to 413.2 billion yuan, while imports increased 49.7 percent to 145.7 billion yuan.

Imports of high value-added and bulk commodities such as electromechanical products and new high-tech products continued to grow in volume and price, up by 26.6 and 33.9 percent respectively.

Traditional labor-intensive products, such as textile and apparel items, remained Zhejiang's major export with its volume growing 11.2 percent to 149.0 billion yuan, accounting for 36.0 percent of the province's gross export value.

Trade with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative registered growth in the first quarter, with its total volume up 23.9 percent year-on-year to 173.3 billion yuan. Exports reached 133.2 billion yuan, up by 15.7 percent, while imports increased 61.9 percent to 40.1 billion yuan.

Zhejiang also witnessed rapid development in the utilization of foreign capital as it approved 586 foreign-invested enterprises in the first quarter. Investment agreements reached $5.35 billion, up 9.0 percent; and foreign investment actually placed reached $4.7 billion, up 9.9 percent.

Though Zhejiang has enjoyed a good start to the year, Zhang Qianjiang, deputy director-general of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, expressed his concern about the urgent need for structural transformation in foreign trade.

He also mentioned the gap between different cities in attracting foreign investment. Hangzhou, Ningbo and Jiaxing were among the top three, and Hangzhou was especially noteworthy in that foreign capital placed there grew 11.4 percent to $1.66 billion, accounting for 35.0 percent of the province's total foreign investment.