GUANGZHOU, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Guangdong Province, a manufacturing heartland and leading foreign trade player in China, reported robust trade growth in the first half of 2021.

Foreign trade of the southern Chinese province totaled 3.8 trillion yuan (about 588 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 24.5 percent year on year, the Guangdong sub-administration of General Administration of Customs said Friday.

Its exports grew 26.9 percent year on year to 2.3 trillion yuan while imports increased 20.9 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan.

Local private businesses continued to be the biggest contributor to foreign trade. Their foreign trade totaled 2.16 trillion yuan in the six months, up 29.2 percent year on year and accounting for 56.9 percent of the total trade.

Guangdong's trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the United States all grew by over 20 percent year on year during the period.

Its trade with the participating countries of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership member countries jumped 16.5 percent and 20 percent, respectively.