The foreign trade value of Zhangjiagang, a county-level city in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, rose 17.8 percent year-on-year to 241.72 billion yuan ($33.25 billion) in the first three quarters of this year, statistics from Zhangjiagang Customs show.

Specifically, exports totaled 105.19 billion yuan, up 22.3 percent year-on-year, while imports grew by 14.7 percent to 136.53 billion yuan.

Statistics show that Zhangjiagang's foreign trade has been growing for three consecutive quarters.

From January to September, the import and export value of private enterprises in Zhangjiagang reached 157.37 billion yuan, an increase of 22.2 percent year-on-year and accounting for 65.1 percent of the city's total.

In addition, the foreign trade value of foreign-invested enterprises reached 58.26 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent, accounting for 24.1 percent of the city's total.

In the first three quarters, the city's foreign trade with its top two trading partners - the European Union (excluding Britain) and the United States - increased 28.2 percent and 13.2 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, Zhangjiagang's imports and exports to the markets in Latin America and Africa rose by 55.6 percent and 33.1 percent respectively.

The city's imports and exports to member countries under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership was 83.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent.