China reported US$17.94 billion of business volume in overseas-contracted projects in the first four months, up 36 percent from the same period last year, said the Ministry of Commerce Wednesday.

The business volume stood at US$5.51 billion in April, up 45 percent year on year.

The overseas-contracted projects created US$44.55 billion of new contract volume from January to April, up 59.5 percent from the same period last year.

The new contract volume in April stood at US$11 billion, up 64.2 percent year on year.

China had finished an accumulative business volume of US$280.9 billion in overseas-contracted projects and an accumulative contract volume of US$478.7 billion by the end of April 2009, the ministry said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2009)