Xinjiang's auto exports to central Asia double in 2011

China-made automobiles exported to central Asian nations from Xinjiang more than doubled last year to 16,000 units, according to local customs.

The revenue of these auto exports also grew by 120 percent to 680 million U.S. dollars, the figures released by the Xinjiang customs office show. Over 80 percent of the auto products exported to the Central Asia market from China's northwestern autonomous region were heavy trucks.

Xinjiang's customs attributed the sharp rise in auto exports to the economic recovery in Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan and the attraction of low cost but high quality China-made automobiles.

Xinjiang's foreign trade grew about 33 percent year-on-year in 2011, far above the national average on robust growth of border trade with its central Asian neighbors, the government earlier reported.

Kazakstan remained Xinjiang's largest trading partner last year, while trade with the five central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan accounted for 78 percent of Xinjiang's foreign trade in 2011.

Since 2010, China has been pushing for greater opening-up of the resources-rich and strategically located Xinjiang to transform it into a regional economic hub from a relatively underdeveloped desert region.