North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region has shown a rise in foreign trade despite the downward trend and other unfavorable factors, such as uncertainties in the external environment and repeated epidemics.

Statistics from the region's commerce department show that in the first 11 months of this year, Inner Mongolia's import and export volume reached 133.49 billion yuan ($19.07 billion), a year-on-year increase of 19.5 percent.

The export value reached 55.13 billion yuan, seeing an increase of 28.7 percent; and the import value reached 78.36 billion yuan, representing an increase of 13.8 percent.

During the same period, the volume of inbound and outbound cargo in the region reached 51.33 million metric tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.3 percent. It is expected that the cargo volume will continue to grow in December.

While the scale of foreign trade in the region is increasing, the commodity structure is also continuously being optimized. The customs department stated that the export proportion of primary products in Inner Mongolia's foreign trade has been declining, and the export proportion of industrial products has been rising, especially the export of high-tech products and mechanical and electrical products.

Inner Mongolia has successively issued and implemented ten policies and measures to promote foreign trade stability and quality improvement, several measures to accelerate the development of new business models and new models of foreign trade, as well as an action plan for accelerating the development of cross-border e-commerce.